Yoshihara, Toshi

Abstract
Beginning in late 2011, successive US defence policy documents and official pronouncements explicitly depicted American strategy in Asia in IndoPacific terms. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was the first top US official to frame expanding US partnerships with Australia, India, and Indonesia in the broader IndoPacific context. Subsequently, President Barak Obama reaffirmed Clinton’s vision in his November 2011 speech to the Australian House of Representatives. Two months later, the Pentagon published its strategic guidance that directed the US military to ‘rebalance toward the AsiaPacific region’, declaring that American interests are ‘inextricably linked to developments in the arc extending from the western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean region and South Asia’. The ‘pivot’ to the IndoPacific has since become the driving force behind the US regional strategy.
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