William Tow at the Australian National University summarizes the results of an ANU conference covering the question of why Cold War strategic alliances remain in force in Asia. The obvious answer is “China.” But Tow notes that there is more to it than that, and that the bigger question facing these alliances is how much US involvement in those tie-ups is a substantive factor, and how much of it is so much rhetoric.

Tow’s paper is another sign that observers around the Pacific are unsettled about the degree to which the Obama Administration’s “Asia Pivot” is real vs. so much aspirational hot air.