The Strategic Importance of the South-Eastern Asian Space Revealed through Sino-American Power Struggle

A development trend of the North Atlantic Alliance aims to the establishment of a “global NATO” as a political and military support of the West and of democratic states worldwide. The political-military and humanitarian cooperation in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya supports the materialization of such a structure. Some reservations are manifested because of the fears of some Western countries that they might be faced with a new global “Cold War” or engaged in armed conflicts in “sensitive areas” in the vicinity of the Russian Federation or China. That is why, maybe, the project of such a “new NATO” seems to be better received in Japan, Australia, and even the Gulf states. This paper aims to underline American vision, as the most important NATO member state, concerning the South-Eastern Asian space and also to put in discussion the Sino-American relations regarding this area.