U.S. policy on Asia seen steady in new Bush govt
U.S. policy on Asia seen steady in new Bush govt
Karl Malakunas, Agence France-Presse/Singapore
Asian governments will miss Colin Powell's moderating voice in the Bush administration but his resignation as secretary of state does not necessarily signal a more hawkish U.S. approach to the region, analysts said on Tuesday.
Asian leaders enjoyed working with Powell, whose accommodating style contrasted with those of the so-called neo-conservatives within President George W. Bush's team such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, they said.
"Colin Powell was a very pleasant personality to deal with," former Association of Southeast Asian Nations secretary general Rodolfo Severino told AFP.
"He was not abrasive and he tried to understand the other side of the argument. His style was very much appreciated (by Asian leaders). People certainly liked him a lot."
Brian Bridges, a North Asian expert from Hong Kong's Lingnan University, agreed that Powell was seen as an important moderating influence to Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and the other hawks of the Bush administration.
"Many Asian governments were disturbed by the style of the Bush administration but they probably saw Powell as the slightly more human face," Bridges said.
"I think there's been a general Asian respect for him as a diplomat and they found the message from the Bush administration highly more palatable expressed through his style rather than through the style of Rumsfeld or Cheney."
The Japan government's spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, summed up on Tuesday the views of many in Asia in expressing disappointment at Powell's resignation, which was announced on Monday.
"As an extremely well-balanced secretary of state, he did a great job," Hosoda said.
However disappointment over Powell's exit was being tempered by the general view that his likely successor as secretary of state, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, would adopt a similarly soothing approach.
"As much as Colin Powell has been seen as a bulwark against the neo-conservative push, it seems to me that Condoleezza Rice may play the very same role," Tan See Seng, an assistant professor at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS), told AFP.
"She strikes me as someone who very much fits into the same conventional, traditional, realistic mold as Powell. She doesn't seem like someone who would toe the neo-conservative line."
Michael Fullilove, the global issues program director at Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policies, said it was too early to conclude that Powell's exit was a defeat for the moderate forces.
"It is certainly true that Colin Powell was the lone internationalist voice in the Bush administration," Fullilove said.
"(But) in my mind Condeleezza Rice is not an ideological person. She's always struck me more as a manager than a policy maker."
Severino also said that Rice "seemed to be a very balanced, sober person".
While the analysts' said it was too early to determine what the major foreign policy changes under a re-elected Bush administration will be, they agreed the U.S. approach to Asia would likely see no drastic revamp.
This included all the major Asian issues that the U.S. is involved in, such as the six-party talks on North Korea, the long-running China-Taiwan dispute and the regional theater of the war on terrorism.
"I don't see any significant changes in a second Bush administration as far as the Asia Pacific is concerned," the IDSS's Tan said.
Tan emphasized the Bush administration's foreign policies in Asia were generally inclusive and multilateralist, in contrast to its global reputation for unilateralism.
On North Korea, Fullilove and Lingnan University's Bridges said the United States would remain involved in the six-party talks, albeit with a lack of enthusiasm.
"What other options have they got other than six-party talks?," Fullilove said.
Bridges said he did not agree with speculation that if the United States managed to deal with its problems in Iraq, it would then focus on North Korea, which is along with Iran one of the two surviving members of Bush's "axis of evil".
"My personal view is that Iran is possibly a faster rising issue and the Bush administration would like to keep North Korea on the back burner for the time being," he said.