Kurt Campbell on US deterrence, the Quad, Aukus and Taiwan after Xi-Trump summit
Kurt Campbell, a veteran US diplomat and strategist, served as White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs from 2021 to 2024 and as deputy secretary of state from 2024 to 2025, having earlier been assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 2009 to 2013. He was a key architect of the Obama administration's pivot to Asia and helped develop the Quad and the "small yard, high fence" approach to technology competition, and is now chairman and co-founder of The Asia Group. In the interview he says containing China is impossible but urges Washington to shore up its regional partnerships.
Why it matters: The interview bears on the theme of US-China strategic competition, setting out a former official's view that containment is unachievable and that Washington's Indo-Pacific partnerships are the instrument of deterrence.