WASHINGTON — More than a decade after President Barack Obama announced America would shift its strategic focus from Middle Eastern conflicts to counter China’s growing influence in Asia, the United States once again finds itself militarily engaged in the Middle East while pulling crucial defense assets away from the Pacific region.
The current military operations against Iran have forced President Donald Trump to postpone his planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping by several weeks, raising concerns among foreign policy experts that America is repeating past mistakes by allowing Middle Eastern conflicts to undermine its strategic priorities in Asia.
Foreign policy analysts who oppose deeper U.S. involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts argue that the Iran war is hampering Trump’s ability to properly prepare for next month’s critical meeting with Xi, particularly when significant economic stakes are involved. They caution that reduced American focus on Asia and weakened deterrence capabilities could encourage China to act against Taiwan if Beijing perceives an opportune moment.
“This is precisely the wrong time for the United States to turn away and be sucked into another intractable Middle East conflict,” said Danny Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Rebalancing to Asia is highly relevant to America’s national interests, but it has been undercut by many bad decisions.”
However, supporters of the president’s strategy contend that taking decisive action in Venezuela and Iran helps counter Chinese influence on a global scale.
“Beijing is the chief sponsor for the adversaries that President Trump is dealing with sequentially, and it’s wise to do this sequentially,” Matt Pottinger, who served as a deputy national security adviser in the first Trump administration, said in a recent podcast.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that future conflicts might span multiple regions, noting that China could potentially activate its “junior partners” in other areas to split American attention if it decides to move against Taiwan.
“Most likely it will not be limited, something in the Indo-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific,” Rutte said, speaking Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington. “It will be a multi-theater issue.”
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently traveled with a bipartisan congressional delegation to Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, where officials expressed concerns about rising energy prices and the withdrawal of American military equipment, including missile defense systems from South Korea and a rapid-response Marine unit from Japan.
During her visit, she worked to reassure allies of America’s dedication to preventing conflicts in Asia and maintaining regional security.
“Failure is not an option,” Shaheen told The Associated Press after returning from Asia. “We know China has already said they intend to take Taiwan by force if they need to, and they’re on an expedited time schedule. And we also know that what happened in Europe, in the war in Ukraine, in the Middle East is affecting those calculations.”
Kurt Campbell, who served as deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration, expressed concern that the military resources America had carefully built up in the Indo-Pacific region might not be fully restored even after the Iran conflict concludes.
According to Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who analyzes U.S. strategy in Asia, the extended duration of the Middle Eastern conflict will continue drawing resources and attention away from Asia, while also negatively impacting future arms sales to the region.
“The United States has expended substantial numbers of munitions in the Middle East and will have to keep an increased force presence there, some of which has been redirected from Asia,” Cooper said. “Meanwhile, Xi Jinping’s wisdom in preparing a ‘war time’ economy by stockpiling and adding alternate energy sources has shown itself to be beneficial.”
Shaheen noted that America’s defense manufacturing sector faces challenges in meeting demand for weapons stockpile replenishment. “We’re working on a number of strategies to improve that, but at this point, timelines for weapons delivery are slipping,” she said.
The New Hampshire senator expressed optimism that Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea are increasing their own defense capabilities.
Obama’s strategic pivot to Asia demonstrated his recognition that America needed to maintain a strong Pacific presence to capitalize on regional economic growth and preserve U.S. leadership against China’s expanding influence.
“After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia-Pacific region,” Obama said in a speech to the Australian Parliament. “So make no mistake, the tide of war is receding, and America is looking ahead to the future that we must build.”
However, the strategy faced setbacks when the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement with key regional allies failed to gain Senate approval. When Trump first assumed office in 2017, he pulled America out of the partnership and initiated a trade war with China.
His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, maintained Trump’s Chinese tariffs and strengthened export restrictions on advanced technology while reinforcing regional partnerships to counter China.
When Trump released his national security strategy in late 2025, the U.S. approach in Asia had been focused primarily on military deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and the First Island Chain, a series of U.S.-allied islands along China’s coast that limit Beijing’s access to the Western Pacific.
The national security document emphasizes America’s economic interest in maintaining access to advanced semiconductors, which come mainly from Taiwan and are essential for everything from computers to missiles, as well as protecting shipping routes in the South China Sea.
“Hence deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” the document says. “We will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain.”
Regarding the Middle East, the document suggests reduced involvement: “As this administration rescinds or eases restrictive energy policies and American energy production ramps up, America’s historic reason for focusing on the Middle East will recede.”
Then came the Iran war.
