Watching the Navy's words vs its actions in the Indo-Pacific: 2022 Preview - Breaking Defense

Long before an Army two-star general boarded the last United States military aircraft leaving Afghanistan this summer, there was already a growing political consensus about the strategic importance of shifting America’s focus away from the Middle East and towards countering China — part of an overall pivot to the Indo-Pacific.

The question, then, is what this much-ballyhooed pivot will look like practically, and specifically for the US Navy. After two decades of the US military being focused mostly on the desert environments of the Middle East, what will it mean for the sea services — Navy, Marines and even Coast Guard — to turn their attention wholly to places such as the South China Sea?