The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia.

• Author: Long, Simon
• Position: Book review

The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia. By Kurt M. Campbell. New York and Boston: Twelve, 2016. Hardcover: 399pp.

American foreign policy has always come in numerous editions. The first unfolds in the press as its practitioners try to shape the world to America's liking. Subsequent ones come out in book form, as they later seek to justify the wisdom of their policies. The Asian adventures of the first Obama administration (2009-12) are no exception. James Steinberg, a former Deputy Secretary of State, has co-authored (with Michael O'Hanlon) a book on "strategic reassurance" in US-China relations. Jeffrey Bader, who was on the National Security Council at the time, has written "an insider's account of America's Asia strategy". And the former Secretary of State herself, Hillary Clinton, has published a volume of memoirs covering the period.

The commander-in-chief's contribution presumably still awaits a book deal. But, with The Pivot, Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 2009-13, enters an already crowded field. It is to his credit that his book still has something to add to the debate, and is written in an engaging, readable style. It is a mixture familiar to aficionados of the genre: part personal anecdote (enough to give the reader the sense that he is being offered a truly "insider's" account, but not so much as to risk any security clearances); part appreciation of the famous politicians he has served (favourable enough not to jeopardize relations or career opportunities but not so starry-eyed as to sink into sycophancy); part self-justifying exposition (striking a delicate balance between claiming credit for a policy he clearly believes in without diminishing the role played by his political bosses).

Of all the members of the administration, Campbell was perhaps most closely associated with the policy that gives his book its title and the Obama administration its foreign-policy legacy in Asia: the "pivot" or "rebalance" of American diplomatic, political and military assets towards Asia. Campbell's book is an extended defence of the pivot. He has, he writes, two main arguments to advance in the book (p. 7). The first is that "Asia has often--if not always--played a secondary role behind more pressing regional concerns in Europe during the cold war and the Middle East during the war on terror. It is time to revisit these global rankings and to finally elevate Asia to a new...