Thursday 7 January 2027
12:30
James Crabtree
The United States has projected power across the Pacific for more than a century. Yet few Americans know their country has a forward defence perimeter in Asia, where more that sixty U.S. bases support nearly 400,000 troops patrolling a vast oceanic frontier. Drawing on his deep understanding of the region, James argues that the United States must urgently reinforce it, or lose supremacy in the Pacific, and therefore the world.
James is an author and geopolitical strategist with extensive experience living and working in Asia. He is a distinguished visiting fellow in the Asia programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, a fellow at the Asia Society in New York, and a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine. Previously, he was the Singapore-based Executive Director of the Institute of International Strategic Studies in Asia, and an Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School, Asia’s leading school of public policy. James also spent ten years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, notably for the Financial Times, where he was both Mumbai Bureau Chief and Comment Editor. He writes for a range of global publications from the FT and the New York Times to Foreign Affairs. Now based in London, he is also a senior advisor at both Flint Global and the London Defence Conference.
Author and political analyst
James is an author and geopolitical strategist with extensive experience living and working in Asia. He is a distinguished visiting fellow in the Asia programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, a fellow at the Asia Society in New York, and a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine. Previously, he was the Singapore-based Executive Director of the Institute of International Strategic Studies in Asia, and an Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School, Asia’s leading school of public policy. James also spent ten years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, notably for the Financial Times, where he was both Mumbai Bureau Chief and Comment Editor. He writes for a range of global publications from the FT and the New York Times to Foreign Affairs. Now based in London, he is also a senior advisor at both Flint Global and the London Defence Conference.