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bling, China has become a major economic partner of the

United States and other countries.  Moreover, the abili-

ties of America's Cold War era allies have increased.

Japan is the second-ranking economic power on earth, South

Korea is far stronger than its northern antagonist, and

most of the other East Asian states have made dramatic

economic progress--not withstanding the recent financial

turmoil.

Yet Washington and Tokyo want to preserve U.S. bases

on Okinawa with little more than cosmetic changes.

Indeed, the U.S. military fusses about how diminishing

threats have increased the pressure to withdraw.

"Unfortunately, past East Asian security initiatives have

already reduced the number of U.S. military in Asia," com-

plains the Marine Corps.  And "the most likely scenario"

of Korean unification would be--horrors!--"the removal of

all U.S. forces."74   Policymakers in Washington and Tokyo

seem unable or unwilling to understand how dramatically

the world has changed over the last decade.  As analyst

Arthur Zich puts it, "The bases are there simply because

they have always been there."75

An Alternative to U.S. Hegemony

Instead of being meddler of first resort, the United

States should act as balancer of last resort, intervening

only if a hegemonic threat develops that allied states are

incapable of containing.  For that purpose, port access is

more important than having ground forces on station.  And,

given the economic growth and political development of

states throughout the region, disengagement would not leave

Washington's friends militarily naked and helpless.

Indeed, America's original deployments were not intended to

be permanent.  The Mutual Defense Treaty between the

United States and South Korea, for example, explicitly

envisioned replacement of the bilateral alliance with "a

more comprehensive and effective system of regional securi-

ty in the Pacific Area."76   The United States should work

to turn those words into reality.

Washington should start by adjusting its military com-

mitments throughout East Asia.  The hegemonic threat posed

by the Soviet Union appeared to tightly link the security

of America with that of such allies as Japan and South

Korea.  But today, observes Edward Olsen of the Naval

Postgraduate School, "That linkage has completely dissipat-

ed.  America's current alliances with other countries are

intended totally to deter attacks on them or to fight

their wars should deterrence fail."77   During the Cold War,