The U.S. pivot to Asia is back and in full swing. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may own the trademark for the term, but her successor Mike Pompeo made it a reality. Since taking office in April 2018, Pompeo has seized on President Donald Trump’s pledge to work toward a “free and open Indo-Pacific” and put it at the center of the administration’s foreign policy. To promote it, he has revitalized the Quad—originally the 2007-2008 Quadrilateral Security Dialogue but now rebranded as the U.S.-Australia-India-Japan Consultations. As a sign of the Quad’s priority, Pompeo will be attending a first-ever dedicated meeting of Quad foreign ministers in Tokyo this week, even after canceling the other legs of his Asia trip due to Trump’s sudden hospitalization for the coronavirus.
Many proponents of the Quad consider it a fledgling alliance with the potential to form the nucleus of an “Asian NATO” to contain China. Detractors dismiss the Quad as a false dawn for Indo-Pacific multilateral cooperation. China’s Foreign Ministry views it as an “anti-China front line,” and it’s probably right. Although the United States’ partners in the Quad have been careful not to say so, Pompeo admitted as much last year when he said the grouping would play a key role in “ensuring that China retains only its proper place in the world.” Yet it is not at all clear that Australia, India, and Japan actually want or need the Quad to put a check on China. Even more importantly, the United States might be better off without the Quad, too.
