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I think technology and the rise of China are changing the structure of the competition

and their elements of real competition as we all know in this relationship or put it

a different way it's gotten harder to defend the first island chain.

And rather than pull back from the first island chain, what I would submit is we need

to make our four bases resilient, in some cases redundant.

It doesn't mean we need to open new bases yet in other countries.

We would hold that in reserve in a sense in response to possible Chinese provocation of

our strategy doesn't work or isn't accepted and implemented by both sides.

But I think it's gotten to be a much more difficult proposition to think of the Western

Pacific as essentially an American lake, the way that it had been for decades, at least

in the US China context.

I'm Ritika Singh and this is the Law Fair Podcast May 10, 2014.

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