US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance sails in formation during Rim of the Pacific on July 28, 2022. (Aleksandr Freutel via DVIDS)

To deter Beijing, Washington will need to increase engagement with allies and partners on all fronts. “It is critical for us to step up our game,” said Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council Kurt Campbell at a Hudson event.

Watch his full discussion, listen to the podcast, or read the transcript of the event with Hudson Distinguished Fellow Walter Russell Mead on US foreign policy and American strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

Key Insights

1. Deterring conflict in the Taiwan Strait will require the US to remain vigilant.

I think we also have to be attentive, not just about the bolt from the blue . . . but the challenge of the inadvertence, the miscalculation, the bumping into fighter planes and things like that. That can have unintended consequences. And so I think our objective at this time is to take the necessary steps to ensure that our deterrent message and actions, which are not simply military—they're across the board—are strong, and are durable, are well understood, publicly communicated, and at the same time also take the necessary steps to try to prevent circumstances where unintended [actions] can have terrible consequences.

2. Supporting Ukraine does not weaken the US. It deters China by strengthening cooperation between the US and its allies.

At the outset [of the war in Ukraine], I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge that I probably had some concerns for that. I don't think that should dim in any way our commitment to what's going on in Ukraine. But what we have found has been actually completely the reverse. Our diplomacy with the Indo-Pacific, if anything, has stepped up. Our diplomacy with Europe has stepped up. . . . There is an undeniable connection [that] what happens in Ukraine has implications for peace and stability in Asia, and that is not lost on any country in the region as a whole. So, if anything, it has led to a deeper, more fundamental commitment to the Indo-Pacific, I think largely because there is probably a greater recognition for what the stakes are.

3. It is not sufficient to be a security player. The US needs to be a full-purpose, full-spectrum player in the Indo-Pacific.

I think we also have to be attentive to those people who are affected by global trade, particularly what might be described as unfair global trade . . . particularly with respect to the practices of China. So I think it would be fair to say that there has been an effort to reconceptualize certain areas that we think are going to be central going forward—supply chains, issues associated with climate, labor, a variety of provisions, taxation—that we think are crucial elements of economic engagement.

Quotes may be edited for clarity and length. 

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