Round Table: Area, Space and Law

• Author: Tianlong You
• Position: Associate Professor, School of Ethnology and Sociology at Yunnan University
• Pages: 85-105

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Round Table: Area, Space and Law1

Moderator: Tianlong You (Associate Professor, School of Ethnology and Sociology at

Yunnan University)

Hello, everyone!

Our Round Table, with seven speakers, encompasses a wide variety of topics,

including history, geography, law, communications, and more. In terms of geography alone,

these papers cover from the Arctic to Australia, from physical space to virtual space. Let’s

give them a round of applause.

Peng Wang (Director Assistant, Centre for Chinese Foreign Strategy Studies, School

of International Studies, Renmin University of China; Research Fellow, the Institute

of State Governance, Huazhong University of Science and Technology)

Topic: Berlin Wall, Greater Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific: The Evolving

Geographical Pivots of American Grand Strategy

Hello, everyone!

History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. It remains to be seen whether future

historians will look back on 2021 as historians today look back at the fragmentation of

Europe’s great powers in the first decade of the 20th century. But it is almost certain that

in the two weeks of September 2021, there have been five consecutive and intense events

that have profoundly shaped the future of global and regional strategy: on September 11,

2021, the United States commemorates the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Not only does this

mark the official end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, but it also marks the end of George

Bush’s Greater Middle East strategy, perhaps heralding the end of the Post-Cold War Era.

Four days later, on September 15, 2021, the United States, the United Kingdom, and

Australia announced the formation of AUKUS Alliance, meaning some sort of alliance

between the world’s three most powerful maritime powers in the Indo-Pacific. The next

day, September 16, 2021, the European Union released its Indo-Pacific strategy document,

declaring the official involvement as the largest geopolitical force outside the Indo-Pacific

region. On September 17, 2021, a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

leaders in the Tajik Capital, Dushanbe, announced that it would begin the process of

upgrading Iran from an observer to a full member. Hereto, there are comments saying that

the three most powerful land-based powers in Eurasia - China, Russia, and Iran - will also

start to coordinate positions and strengthen strategic linkage. A week later, on September

24, 2021, the leaders of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia attended the Leaders’

Summit of the quadrilateral security dialogue (Quad) in Washington, D.C, claiming that it

would comprehensively strengthen security and economic cooperation among the four

countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Although the joint statement did not name China, it

was widely seen as aimed at Beijing.

There is nothing new under the Sun. These five geographic events, which are not

completely isolated from each other, may provide a glimpse into some historical trajectory

1 The Round Table is translated by Jiangnan Nie (East China University of Political Science an d Law) and

Xiaofu Li (Associate Editor of FLIA Review). The translation s has been modified and confirmed by the

speakers.

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of the shift in the center of gravity of our global strategy.

The first part of my statement concerns the geo-strategic heritage and legacy of the

United States since its founding.

Since its founding, “Europe first” has been the guiding principle of America’s

geography and security strategy. Whether it is Washington’s, father of the United States,

isolationism political will to stay out of European affairs, or the Monroe Doctrine’s desire

to dominate the Americas alone, its unspoken bulwark against rivals and threats from

within Europe. The former tried to avoid being damaged by being involved in the internal

strife of Europe in the context of its weakness, while the latter tried to reject the influence

of Europe on the Americas in the context of its strength.

With the development of Westward Movement, the United States became a two-ocean

country in the mid-19th century. With the conquest of the Pacific Islands, the victory of the

Spanish-American War, and the occupation of the Philippines at the beginning of the 20th

century, the United States had become involved in Asia and the Pacific. However, the

principle of European priority, which is deeply rooted in the United States strategic

tradition, has not been eroded.

In the century after the Battle of Manila Bay, after the United States initially

established its dominant position in the Pacific after the World War I, after the invasion of

the Pacific territories in World War II and the eventual use of its power to defeat Japan and

occupy the whole of Japan’s Island, and even after the Korean Peninsula and Indochina

were embroiled in two bitter hot wars, “Europe first, Asia second” geostrategic principle

stood firm. The root cause, as early as October 1938, in his report to the enlarged sixth

plenary session of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong had pointed out from the

height of the world strategy: “the main center of gravity of the world is in Europe, and the

east is an important part surrounding it, whether it is the eve of war or the outbreak of war

between the Great Powers, the Great Powers and the small ones in the West will put

European problems first on the agenda, while the eastern problems will have to be put

second for the time being.”

The second part of my talk is on the Cold War: the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall and

“Europe First, Asia Second” Principle.

The World War II led to the decline of Europe, the center of the modern world, and

the shift of its power to its two wings, flanking countries, including the United States and

the Soviet Union with “geographical location and size and the combination of huge military

supply potential” to become the only remaining superpower. The focus of the US-Soviet

confrontation remains on a divided Europe. American diplomacy has a tradition of “Europe

First, Asia Second”, and the “Atlantic First” principle was formally established during

World War II by the ABC conference held in Washington D.C. in 1941 by British and

American staff officers.

Early in the postwar period, George Kennan listed the United States, the United

Kingdom, the Rhein valley countries (France, Germany, and their hinterland), Russia, and

Japan as “key areas” that the United States must control because these areas had important

industrial capabilities. In contrast, the Soviet Union, America’s archrival during the Cold

War, had a demographic and industrial base in Europe. As a result, Europe has become the

main battleground between the two camps, remaining at the central place of the U.S. global

geostrategy.

Between 1947 and 1949, the basic pattern of the Cold War between the United States