From Atlanticism to Pacificism: Reorienting U.S. Defense Strategy

The phrase From Atlanticism to Pacificism denotes not merely a geographic reorientation but a paradigmatic shift in the United States’ strategic ontology. For over two centuries, U.S. foreign and defense policy was deeply embedded in Euro-Atlantic constructs, a product of historical-cultural affinity, economic interdependence, and the geopolitical imperatives of the 18th to 20th centuries. In the post–Cold War international system, however, the rise of China as a peer competitor necessitates a reallocation of strategic bandwidth, fiscal resources, and alliance architecture toward the Indo-Pacific — a theatre now central to determining the structure of global order.