Flournoy: Asia Will be Heart of U.S. Security Policy

Flournoy: Asia Will be Heart of U.S. Security Policy By Lisa Daniel American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 29, 2011 – While the United States is confronting terrorism and hostile regimes in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Libya, leaders also are looking eastward to shape U.S. security policy for the long-term, the Pentagon’s top policy official said last night. “When future historians look back at this era, I am convinced that the rise of Asia will be noted as the central geo-strategic fact of our time,” Michèle Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, told a packed room of policy experts at Johns Hopkins University’s “Rethinking Seminar” here. “By most measures, the Asia-Pacific region is the most important and most dynamic region in the world today -- and likely to be more so as this still-young century unfolds,” she said.