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Hawaii’s World

By A.A. Smyser

Tuesday, January 23, 2001

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New Asian policy
chief is from isles

SECRETARY of State Colin Powell has done a good thing by turning to the Pacific Forum think tank in Honolulu to find his assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

James Kelly has the right stuff, including previous Washington experience.

But we would be foolish to forget the caution from our senior U.S. senator, Daniel Inouye, that President Bush's top security choices -- Powell included -- have spent most of their careers dealing with Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

Kelly's appointment helps but is far from correcting the imbalances. There are 30 other assistant secretaries of state.

How often can Kelly get Powell's ear? When Powell gets the president's ear, how much of his time will he focus on Asia and the Pacific?

A good bet is: not enough.

The president will have mostly Euro-centric top aides around him and is based in the Euro-centric U.S. East. The political magnets around Washington pull in the Europe-Middle East direction.

Will President Bush fully recognize that:

To try to avoid more Vietnams or Koreas, America is playing a peacekeeper role for all of the Asia-Pacific region, with our major vehicle the combined military Pacific command at Camp Smith?

Eight of the world's 10 largest armies are in the Asia-Pacific area?

Japan still has one of the world's largest economies, equal to half of the rest of Asia's?

American trade across the Pacific matches our trade across the Atlantic?

China is the world's most populous nation, nuclear-armed, space-capable, opposed to our policy on Taiwan and opposed to us building a missile defense that might help protect it?

North and South Korea may be talking reunification but the North remains an unpredictable worry?

India in this century will top China as the world's largest nation?

India and Pakistan, both nuclear nations, have border rivalries that could flare?

Government instability threatens the future of Indonesia, which controls the vital Straits of Malacca, the Philippines, our former possession, and Fiji, the most important Pacific island nation?

China and Japan have the best chance of getting close to the front and center of Bush's foreign policy attention. But will he go beyond the attention President Clinton gave the area that many critics feel was not enough and too pro-China?

Kelly will speak for more focus on Japan as our major Pacific ally and perhaps a stiffer line against China.

The Pacific Forum is only one of America's Hawaii-based Asia-Pacific assets. Two nationally funded contributors are the community-building East-West Center and the military-cooperation-building Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

ALSO based in Honolulu is the Pacific Basin Economic Council of over 1,000 private business leaders. The University of Hawaii and other educational institutions add to the know-how and personnel to be tapped in Hawaii.

In May we will host the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank. PBEC met here last year and will be back. We have become a congenial site for many smaller Asia-Pacific meetings, thanks to our multi-ethnic population, fine resort and conference facilities, mostly agreeable climate and relaxed life style.

Pacific Forum will continue its monthly reports on news from Asia-Pacific countries and its periodic conferences here and elsewhere. Ralph Cossa will move up from his No. 2 spot to take its helm.

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A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.