What Would Asia Look Like Without US Leadership?
There is no easy way to deal with Trump’s return, but imaging a world without America only shows how indispensable it is.
Imagining Asia without the US.
Photographer: ROSLAN RAHMANROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images
As the world of tries to game out the economic impact of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a top-draw panel in Singapore was posed a confronting question: What would a world without the US look like? Not great, and one for which there are no easy answers.
That it was a field of inquiry at all was arresting. American firms are the biggest investors in Southeast Asia, several nations have close defense ties with Washington, and the region enjoyed strong growth on the back of a global trading system anchored by the US. Central bankers in the area seem spend as much time worrying about the dollar and US indicators than they do growth and inflation at home. Despite its enormous progress in the past few decades, China just doesn't yet pack the same punch.