How Indispensable is the United States for East Asia?

This article scrutinizes a vision of America’s role as an “indispensable nation” for East Asia. The US role needs to be understood in the context of international order, with purposes embedded in it. The US created a liberal international order after WWII, including in East Asia. It competed with alternatives in East Asia and US policy itself was not always liberal. How East Asian countries act based on their own interests and values and how they interpret the intentions and actions of the United States and others constitute East Asian international relations. Based on its track record in military, political, economic, and multilateral arenas in East Asia, the US has been indispensable in a contingent sense of working with other countries as more than an equal. US leverage has decreased and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future in East Asia and elsewhere if it acts unilaterally