Together with Obama, the US strategic planner for Asia will join the Biden government

Kurt Campbell, a key player in Barack Obama’s US “shift” toward Asia, will take a high-level position in the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, signaling new efforts to unite with allies in the face of a rising China.

Campbell will act as coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region at the National Security Council and serve as deputy to Jake Sullivan, the next national security advisor, according to the Asia Group, a consulting firm that Campbell founded in 2013 after leaving the government.

Allies like Japan and South Korea will likely be comforted by the appointment of Campbell, who has been critical of strong pressure from President Donald Trump to pay more for US bases.

Campbell wrote in an article published this week in Foreign Affairs in partnership with Rush Duchi, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, that Trump “has strained nearly every component of the operating system in the region.”

The two wrote that the United States “needs to make a conscious effort to deter the Chinese adventure,” but they called for a more nuanced approach from Trump’s team, which spoke of a cold war-like global war against Beijing.

sct / bgs / mps / gma