This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, October 13, 2010.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The United States must find ways to devolve many of its military responsibilities

around the world.

So says Christopher Preble, author of the Power Problem,

and director of the Cato Institute's Foreign Policy Studies. At the Cato Club 200 retreat,

Preble argued that normal countries defend themselves, and that creating dependency is not a path forward for U.S. security.

The U.S. has been the dominant military power in East Asia, arguably since the end of World War II.

And we have a very sizable military presence

on the Korean Peninsula, but we also have a large presence

in Japan, primarily in the island of Okinawa.

The US military power remains unmatched in the world today

and it will continue to remain unmatched in the world today.

But we cannot maintain a dominant position in every single corner of the world.

We have to find ways.

U.S. policymakers and American citizens, if the policy makers don't take the hint, have got

to find ways to devolve some of these responsibilities to our wealthy, stable,

democratic allies in other parts of the world.

Doug already mentioned, I want to reiterate, the European allies, you know, NATO has been a wonderful success and it should have been disbanded 20 years ago after it won a great victory over the Soviet Union.

The continent has enjoyed relative peace and prosperity, security for decades.

The same principle applies to East Asia.

Now, North Korea continues to cause problems.

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