Top US diplomatic and defense leaders were hoping to use the coming week to focus on
Asiawhere both Deputy Secretary of State Burns and Defense Secretary Panetta are due to attend the June 1
st-3
rdround of the
Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. In advance of this,
officials had outlined the new focus of
defense strategy on the Asia-Pacific region, contrasting this with the drawdown of dispositions and operations in the Euro-Atlantic and Middle East theaters. These plans have, in the words of a senior State Department official speaking privately to us, been “hijacked” by the immediate crisis in
Syria, the deepening uncertainty in
Egypt and increasing pessimism over
Iran. Among US officials
there are now clear differences of opinion about the best next steps on Syria. To some extent these mirror the divisions over Libya, with State Department officials and some powerful advisors in the White House urging
more robust action than the
Pentagon which continues to reject unilateral US military intervention. Overall, there remains an overarching sense of the risks involved in any military option which does not command wide international support…
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