Why did the Obama administration's attempted pivot (or “rebalance”) to Asia fail? In this article, we argue that three interrelated domestic factors are to blame: hyper-partisanship in Washington, DC; the lack of a compelling foreign-policy narrative to make the pivot intelligible and attractive to a broad slice of the political class and domestic public; and the related failure to convince enough Americans that the pivot was necessary to boost their economic fortunes. These domestic stumbling blocks made it impossible for the Obama administration to invest US power assets toward a long-term programmatic endeavor in the Asia-Pacific. In making this argument about the domestic foundations of US power-projection, we improve upon existing explanations of the pivot's undoing that focus on international-level obstacles, problems with the pivot's design and implementation, or the unexpected election of Donald Trump as Obama's successor. We conclude by drawing implications for US power projection beyond the pivot and, indeed, beyond East Asia—suggesting that the US political system has become a weak foundation upon which to build any ambitious foreign-policy superstructure.

中文翻译：

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权力投射的政治：转向亚洲、它的失败和美国主导地位的未来

为什么奥巴马政府试图转向亚洲（或“再平衡”）失败了？在本文中，我们认为应该归咎于三个相互关联的国内因素：华盛顿特区的超党派主义；缺乏令人信服的外交政策叙述，无法使这一转变对广大的政治阶层和国内公众具有可理解性和吸引力；以及相关的未能说服足够多的美国人相信这一转变对于增加他们的经济财富是必要的。这些国内绊脚石使奥巴马政府无法将美国的电力资产投资于亚太地区的长期计划性努力。在就美国力量投射的国内基础提出这一论点时，我们改进了现有的关于支点撤消的解释，即关注国际层面的障碍，枢轴的设计和实施问题，或唐纳德特朗普的意外选举为奥巴马的继任者。最后，我们得出了美国在支点之外，实际上是在东亚之外的力量投射的影响——这表明美国的政治体系已经成为建立任何雄心勃勃的外交政策上层建筑的薄弱基础。