Unpacking the Free and Open Indo-Pacific

COMMENTARY Asia

Unpacking the Free and Open Indo-Pacific

Mar 16, 2018
COMMENTARY BY
Jeff M. Smith

Director, Asian Studies Center

Jeff Smith is Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Press Information Bureau/ZUMA Press/Newscom

With the winds of geopolitical change sweeping Asia, the Trump administration has unveiled new concept that is generating equal parts interest and confusion. On his tour of Asia in November, President Donald Trump began promoting a new vision for a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.” America’s “interest in a free and open Indo-Pacific extends back to the earliest days of our republic,” the administration’s National Security Strategy declared the following month. Key cabinet members have been promoting the concept since October.

Read the full article: https://warontherocks.com/2018/03/unpacking-the-free-and-open-indo-pacific/ 

This piece originally appeared in War On The Rocks