In a surprise move, the US Defence Department announced that Indo-Pacific Command – the Hawaii-based headquarters responsible for American forces across the Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean – would revert to its original name: Pacific Command, or PACOM.

Officially, the explanation was institutional memory. The Pentagon said the restoration of the USPACOM designation honoured the command’s “deep historical roots”, from its role in shaping the post-Second World War regional security architecture to its coordination of joint forces during the Korean War, the Vietnam War and countless humanitarian operations across the Pacific.

This may be true. But in Washington, strategic names are rarely only about nostalgia. They are signals. The nameplate does not change the chessboard, but it tells allies and adversaries how the board is being read.

The nameplate does not change the chessboard, but it tells allies and adversaries how the board is being read.

The nameplate does not change the chessboard, but it tells allies and adversaries how the board is being read.

The decision has come just eight years after President Donald Trump, during his first term, changed PACOM into Indo-Pacific Command. His then defence secretary, Jim Mattis, said in 2018 that the new designation recognised “the increasing connectivity between the Indian and Pacific oceans”. Admiral Harry Harris had earlier captured the command’s vast operational boundaries with a phrase that became part of Washington’s Indo-Pacific vocabulary: from “Hollywood to Bollywood.”

Breaking Defence noted that the Pentagon’s own notice said the command’s border delineation would remain the same, stretching from the US West Coast to India’s western border, while PACOM’s “fundamental mission” of maintaining a free and open theatre with allies and partners would continue.

Still, the 2018 rechristening had........

© Daily Times