Ongoing reports and analysis

Elbridge Colby, the influential but polarizing U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, just completed a tour of Southeast Asia where he visited Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. His primary goal was clearly to clarify and promote the Trump administration’s new global defense strategy, underpinned by what it calls “flexible realism,” with U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.

In a public speech in Manila, he reiterated the turn in U.S. alliance politics, much of which appears to carry his handwriting. Washington seeks “partners, not protectorates,” to increase burden-sharing while continuing to bolster deterrence by denial against China. Colby also highlighted that, unlike the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, the Trump administration prioritizes shared interests over shared values, thus enabling the U.S. to significantly widen the aperture of security cooperation across the entire region. Finally, Colby talked of maintaining a favorable balance of power with China in the Indo-Pacific rather than preserving American primacy—a stark departure from previous administrations, including President Donald Trump’s first, which sought to keep the United States as the predominant global power.

Elbridge Colby, the influential but polarizing U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, just completed a tour of Southeast Asia where he visited Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. His primary goal was clearly to clarify and promote the Trump administration’s new global defense strategy, underpinned by what it calls “flexible realism,” with U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.

In a public speech in Manila, he reiterated the turn in U.S. alliance politics, much of which appears to carry his handwriting. Washington seeks “partners, not protectorates,” to increase burden-sharing while continuing to bolster deterrence by denial against China. Colby also highlighted that, unlike the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, the Trump administration prioritizes shared interests over shared values, thus enabling the U.S. to significantly widen the aperture of security cooperation across the entire region. Finally, Colby talked of maintaining a favorable balance of power with China in the Indo-Pacific rather than preserving American primacy—a stark departure from........

© Foreign Policy