Within this setting, U.S. China policy should reflect a well-hedged mix of engagement and containment tactics, clear opposition to a unilateral Taiwanese declaration of independence, but an equally clear U.S. determination to come to Taipei's defense if China attacks.

To implement these and other political initiatives, the U.S. military posture in the Pacific needs revamping too. Among the adjustments: Beefing up forces, shifting their focus southwards from the current concentration in northeast Asia (while still maintaining a deterrent contingent in Korea) and recasting security arrangements with Japan. Other important steps include expanding access to bases in Southeast Asia and perhaps in South Asia and Oman as well, forging military-to-military ties with India, Pakistan and Indonesia as a means of mitigating bilateral conflicts and internal unrest, and encouraging security coordination among such core U.S. partners as Japan, Australia and South Korea.

Finally, U.S. regional capabilities should be further improved by building up Guam as a power projection hub, developing new concepts for joint Air Force-Navy operations that maximize the leverage of their combined theater forces, and giving greater emphasis to longer-range combat platforms when planning future force structures. Options of the latter include additional heavy bombers, "arsenal planes" that could be loaded with large numbers of standoff smart weapons, and development of a small fleet of high-speed, long-range strike aircraft.

These are some of the principal recommendations in a new and comprehensive RAND study - The United States and Asia: Towards a New U.S. Strategy and Force Posture - that proposes sweeping changes in both. The project was sponsored by the U.S. Air Force and directed by lead author Zalmay Khalilzad, RAND's corporate chair in international security. Co-authors include analysts David T. Orletsky, Jonathan D. Pollack, Kevin Pollpeter, Angel M. Rabasa, David A. Shlapak, Abram N. Shulsky and Ashley J. Tellis.

Khalilzad joined the White House staff Monday as special assistant to the president and senior director at the National Security Council. Earlier, he led the incoming administration's Pentagon transition team.

The overall U.S. objective for Asia should be to preclude the growth of rivalries and insecurities that could lead to war, the research team declares. This, in turn, requires precluding the rise of a regional hegemon that could undermine the American role in the region and subsequently - given Asia's enormous resources - pose a global challenge.

To do so, the U.S. needs a strategy that will sustain stability, managing events in such a way that they don't spiral out of control. In the economic sphere, this means maintaining and extending policies that favor free trade and financial stability. But on the political-military front, the authors argue, it implies a four-part strategy that involves change as well as continuity.

• U.S. bilateral security alliances with South Korea, Japan and Australia should be deepened to promote trust and improved relations among them, possibly widened to include Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand, and steered toward eventual creation of a comprehensive partnership. In the process, the U.S. should support efforts in Japan to revise its constitution, expand its security horizons and reach agreement on a Japanese-American strategy in Asia.

• The U.S. should nurture a balance-of-power structure involving China, India and Russia with the aim of deterring any of them from threatening regional security, dominating one another or coalescing against the U.S. "Washington should seek strengthened political, economic and military relations with all (three), but especially those least likely to challenge U.S. strategic interests, " the report advises.

• The United States should "address those situations that could tempt others to use force." This includes clarifying U.S. declaratory policy on Taiwan, but also working to resolve territorial disputes and issues of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, to promote the cohesion and territorial integrity of Indonesia, to encourage resolution of the Kashmir dispute and to discourage a nuclear arms race in the subcontinent.

• Finally, the U.S. should promote an Asia-wide dialogue with the goal of dampening regional conflicts, furthering confidence-building measures and, ultimately, establishing a broad multilateral security framework.

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