Less Talk More Pivot

Reorienting the military to counter China is an urgent priority for the U.S.—but easier said than done

- Peter Martin and Roxana Tiron

President Joe Biden has pledged an era of “extreme competition” with the People’s Republic of China. For the U.S., that means being able to challenge Beijing for the commanding heights of global commerce, to shape the rules around trade and technology, and—if push comes to shove— to fight and win a war with the world’s second-largest economy. The question is how to steer the behemoth U.S. military, which has almost 2 million personnel across six branches, away from the Middle East and terrorism to focus on a new region and different threats, 20 years after the Sept. 11 attacks and the ensuing invasion of Afghanistan.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III has dubbed China “the pacing challenge”—military-industrial verbiage for the leading competitor. In June, Austin issued a directive aimed at reorienting the Department of Defense to better compete with Beijing. That echoed signals of a pivot under the past two presidential administrations.

Washington, however, is often better at articulating grand ambitions than following through on them. That’s especially true of the Pentagon, the world’s largest bureaucracy. The U.S. military’s priorities have been forged by two decades of warfare in the Middle East, and its spending habits are deeply entrenched in congressional politics. Even inside the building, officials warn of a “say/do gap” when it comes to taking on China. That gap persists, though Biden’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan may do more than the actions of his predecessors Barack Obama and Donald Trump to achieve a long-promised tilt toward Asia.