Introduction: Pacific Dream? The Evolution of US Alliances in the Indo-Pacific, 2001–2024

On 15 April 2013, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, US Secretary of State John (Kerry, John, ‘Remarks on a 21st Century Pacific Partnership’, 15 April 2013, Tokyo, Japan, https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/04/207487.htm ) presented the audience with his vision of a ‘Pacific Dream’. Kerry’s argument was clear: the US, through its bilateral alliances, had made itself part of an increasingly secure Asia-Pacific.