The Role of Relationship Building in a United States National Security Strategy for the Asia Pacific

The Indian Ocean/Asia Pacific region is quickly becoming a key driver in global politics given the areas tremendous economic growth and the emergence of its growing middle class. Central to this growth has been the rise of China. China is forecast to become one of the largest economic powers in the world and will thus start acquiring great influence in the Asia Pacific. The United States, a Pacific power itself, has much to gain from the region's growth. The challenge of any American national security strategy for the Asia Pacific will be to protect U.S. vital interests even as it promotes greater trust and collective cooperation for security and stability. Therefore, this region requires a tailored American security strategy that contains a pluralistic approach incorporating several theoretical foundations and concepts in international relations in order to influence outcomes. It must be a strategy that understands the significant role that power plays in the international system in combination with an approach that emphasizes social interaction and relationship building that is based on trust. For guidance in support of such a pluralistic approach concept, American policy-makers should look to the United States Navy and its implementation of a naval program in Africa, called Africa Partnership Station (APS). Through an analysis of an APS engagement in Tanzania, this thesis will show how the United States Navy is able to deploy a constructivist/soft power approach, through relationship building based on trust, to influence outcomes in support of national security objectives. By demonstrating the U.S. Navy's ability to engage in constructivism and the deployment of soft power, this thesis will demonstrate how a pluralistic approach concept to a national security strategy is possible and how it might be implemented in the Asia Pacific region.