We Can’t Abandon Europe to Focus on China

China Hawks Miss the Mark.

One of the best arguments I’ve seen for skepticism on Ukraine aid is that it directs resources away from the Indo-Pacific theater, where the U.S. has a much more significant long-term strategic challenge. I disagree with this argument, but it is one that seriously grapples with the long-term security challenges of the United States and deserves to be taken seriously.

Elbridge Colby, an experienced national security professional and former deputy assistant secretary of defense, often makes this argument. He oversaw policy analysis and planning for the DoD and had a role in executing the shift in focus from the Middle East to East Asia.

In my view, his general idea that the U.S. wasted too much time in theaters where it has little long-term strategic interest, like the Middle East, is correct. This is why I supported the withdrawal from Afghanistan and U.S. efforts to minimize its focus on the region.

However, he focuses so much on the threat posed by China, and elevates it so much relative to other concerns, that he ignores regions strategically connected to our competition with China…