U.S. Urged to Add to Pacific Strength

Faced with growing political, economic and military challenges across Asia, the Bush administration must rebuild a crumbling U.S. base structure in the Pacific before the region becomes the battlefield of the 21st century, a private group says in a report released today.

The Rand Corp., a Santa Monica-based think tank with close ties to the Pentagon, urges the administration to develop a balance-of-power strategy to prevent China, India or any other power from dominating the vast region.

The primary author of the report is Zalmay Khalilzad, a Pentagon official during the first Bush administration. Khalilzad joined the National Security Council staff Monday in a senior position that makes him a top strategist on international security.

“Asia is changing in ways that seem likely to require major adjustments in U.S. strategy and military posture,” the report says. “India and especially China are rising powers that seek their place in the world and, in the process, could potentially disrupt regional order.”

The report says it is in Washington’s interest to prevent any Asian power from becoming too strong.

“Any potential Asian hegemony would seek to undermine the U.S. role in Asia and would be more likely to use force to assert its claims,” it says.

The United States should seek to strengthen its political, economic and military relationships with China, India and Russia for the purpose of deterring any of them from threatening regional stability, the report says.

The panel calls on the administration to reverse a decades-long policy of closing U.S. military bases in Asia. Since the end of the Vietnam War, the Pentagon has abandoned two major bases in the Philippines, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base; curtailed facilities in Japan; and shuttered a number of smaller outposts.

The report says the United States has no reliable military access to the India-Pakistan subcontinent, which it describes as “probably the world’s most likely nuclear battleground.”

The military government of Pakistan “is hardly a reliable partner, and current domestic trends promise to make it even less so,” the report says. As for India, the panel says, relations are “still in an early stage of post-Cold War thawing.”

Since the Pentagon has little chance of gaining base rights in either country, it should turn to Oman, a Persian Gulf sultanate about 500 nautical miles from the India-Pakistan border, the report says.

“Relations between the government of Oman and the United States are good, and Oman has shown itself to be a reasonably steadfast ally,” the report says.

The panel also suggests that the U.S. seek to renew base rights in the Philippines and solidify its presence in Asia in ways that do not require foreign bases.

It says Guam, a U.S. territory, “should be built up as a major hub for power projection throughout Asia.” The island already serves that purpose, but the report says the facilities on the island should be upgraded.

It also urges the Air Force to obtain additional heavy bombers such as the B-1 and aircraft capable of delivering long-range missiles and smart munitions.

The report says the most dangerous spot in Asia remains the border between North and South Korea. If the current round of negotiations between the two countries produces a peace agreement, it says, tensions will ease throughout the continent. But China’s aspirations will guarantee that Asia will remain a hot spot even if Seoul and Pyongyang end their confrontation, the report says.