The Asia-Pacific Century ― Challenges and Opportunities

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton published "America’s Pacific Century" in Foreign Policy magazine in November 2011, the administration was clearly indicating to domestic and international audiences that the United States is beginning a pivot toward the Asia-Pacific. Clinton’s article served as a spark for renewed interest in the nation’s Asia-Pacific strategy and American interests in the region.

The Asia-Pacific Century: Challenges and Opportunities looks to the future of the Asia-Pacific and examines a broad range of questions that focus on diplomatic, economic, and military challenges facing the region’s key players, with a particular focus on their relevance to the US military.

Dr. Stephen J. Cimbala is a distinguished professor of political science at Penn State Brandywine. He is the author of numerous works in the field of national security studies, defense policy, nuclear arms control, deterrence, and other subjects. Dr. Cimbala is an award-winning Penn State teacher. His recent publications include Nuclear Weapons in the Information Age (Continuum International Publishing Company, 2012) and his edited volume, Civil-Military Relations in Perspective: Strategy, Structure and Policy (Ashgate Publishers, 2012).

Dr. Chad Dacus is a research professor of economics at the Air Force Research Institute (AFRI), Maxwell AFB, Alabama. His current research interests include defense acquisition, economics and strategy, and cyberspace risk modeling. Before joining the AFRI staff, Dr. Dacus worked for the Center for Naval Analyses as a research analyst in readiness and infrastructure and then as a field representative to US Fleet Forces Command.

Dr. Thomas P. Dolan is a professor and chairman, Department of Political Science, and chairman, Master of Public Administration Program, Columbus State University. Rated as a naval flight officer and mission commander in the P-3 Orion, he also served as an intelligence analyst with the Combined Forces Command, US Forces, Korea, and with the War Plans Division, Forces Command.

Dr. John P. Geis II is director of research, Air Force Research Institute, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He is a retired US Air Force colonel with an Air Force career spanning training and combat operations. He flew the T-37, AT-38B, T-43, two variants of the F-111, and the AC-130H special operations gunship and was director of long-range planning for all US Air Force special forces. Dr. Geis served for eight years as director, Air Force Center for Strategy and Technology, where he advised national leadership on strategic implications of emerging technologies.

Dr. Kimberly Gill is an assistant professor, Department of Political Science, and director, Master of Public Administration Program, Columbus State University. She serves as a mediator for the Third Judicial District of Georgia and is a court-appointed special advocate. She also assists the US Army Sniper School, Fort Benning, Georgia, in course development.

Dr. Sanu Kainikara is the airpower strategist at the Air Power Development Centre of the Royal Australian Air Force and also a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales. He is the author of many books and is a former fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force who retired as a Group Captain after 21 years of commissioned service. He has two bachelors’ degrees, a master’s degree in defence and strategic studies from India’s University of Madras, and a PhD in international politics from the University of Adelaide in South Australia. He is currently conducting his PhD research on the law of armed conflict and military strategy at the Australian National University.

Justin Logan is the director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He is an expert on US grand strategy, international relations theory, and American foreign policy. His current research focuses on the shifting balance of power in Asia—specifically with regard to China—and the formation of US grand strategy under unipolarity. He has lectured on a range of foreign policy issues to the J-5 (Strategic Plans and Policy), on Capitol Hill, and at universities throughout the United States and world.

Dr. Adam Lowther is a research professor at the Air Force Research Institute (AFRI), Maxwell AFB, Alabama. The editor of Terrorism’s Unanswered Questions and the author of Americans and Asymmetric Conflict: Lebanon, Somalia,