The United States, Asia and 'convergent security'

Progressing from an Asia-Pacific security posture based on bilateral alliances to one focused on bilateralism and multilateralism - convergent security - was always going to be difficult for the United States. Yet the Obama administration has recently adopted such a policy. It has been especially supportive of inserting 'minilateral' security diplomacy into existing security frameworks, even though the US has not endorsed a single strategy. Nonetheless, effective convergent security will require a creative revision of such collaboration. Indeed, it will prove difficult to combine bilateralism and multilateralism in ways that will do more then just coexist.