US think tank proposes withdrawing troops from the western Pacific
In the United States, the center-right think tank Defense Priorities Foundation has proposed significantly reducing the US military presence in the western Pacific and ending mutual defense alliances with South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. As Deutsche Welle English reports, analysts in the Indo-Pacific region have expressed deep concern over these proposals.
Troop redeployment
Jennifer Kavanagh, the study’s author, a senior fellow and the foundation’s director of military analysis, called on Washington to narrow its defense commitments in the region. In her view, US priorities should be protecting its own territory and maintaining access to key economic markets and trade routes.
Kavanagh proposes withdrawing US forces from the so-called first island chain, which stretches from Okinawa in southern Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines. Instead, she believes troops should be reduced and redeployed to the second island chain — from eastern Japan through the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and Palau to Papua New Guinea. The report says such positions would be easier to defend and would reduce the risk of a catastrophic war with China.
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Taiwan and expert reaction
Separately, Kavanagh advocated for the United States to shift from strategic ambiguity to a clear policy of non-intervention in the event of a military clash over Taiwan. She noted that the United States has no formal obligation to assist Taiwan in the event of an attack by China, and that an armed conflict would, in her assessment, cost the United States significantly more than any potential benefits.
International Crisis Group analyst William Yang said that Washington’s allies may receive the foundation’s conclusions with shock. According to him, there are no signs that the White House is preparing to adopt these proposals, although they align with President Donald Trump’s isolationist and transactional approaches.
International relations professor Garren Malloy believes that a US withdrawal would create a vacuum that China and, to a lesser extent, Russia could fill, while also weakening Washington’s influence on regional geopolitics. Professor Dan Pinkston called the plan misguided and unrealistic, saying that winding down alliances could jeopardize US trade ties and its involvement in addressing regional security issues.
