In 2011, President Barack Obama announced that the United States was going to pivot toward the Asia-Pacific. There is widespread scholarly discussion as to whether this shift to the Asia-Pacific was motivated primarily by regional security anxieties or by larger economic and diplomatic interests. Through the analysis of China's military growth and threatening behavior within the Asia-Pacific region, and the examination of various economic reasons to strategically shift to the Pacific, this book attempts to answer thequestion: Why did the United States decide in 2011 to adopt this re-balancing strategy andincrease its military and economic resources to the Asia-Pacific region?