The Ukraine Crisis: Implications for U.S. Policy in the Indo-Pacific

• Published in: American Enterprise Institute Research Papers
• Main Author: Blumenthal, Dan
• Format: Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Washington American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research 19.05.2022
• Subjects: Geopolitics; International relations; China; Ukraine

Chairman Bera, Ranking Member Chabot, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak here today. Congressional interest in how Russia’s attack on Ukraine reverberates in the Indo-Pacific is crucial. Our allies always ask if our Asia policy is bipartisan, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is always looking to amplify any political divisions apparent in democracies. The Russian invasion is the most disruptive event to the post–World War II world order in our time. We are in a new era of geopolitics, and we need new strategic approaches to ensure that future coalitions needed to deter and defeat great-power aggression are strong and credible. History teaches that great-power aggression is like a contagion, difficult to stop once it begins to spread. We must contain it. We can see more danger ahead. Vladimir Putin is not alone in his desire to bring down the order that has kept great-power peace. General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping has been articulating his vision of a new international relations with China at the center and calculated that backing Putin’s war of aggression would further his geopolitical interests. Xi certainly believed that Putin would succeed and is surprised by the fierce resistance of the Ukrainian people, the courageous leadership of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the unified Western response. He has other reasons to be satisfied. Deterrence in Europe and countries crucial to the coalition against Xi’s aggressive designs have stayed on the sidelines of this conflict. Read the full testimony here.