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Additional Context
In my most recent post about RIMPAC, I noted that US military joint exercises appear to be the latest function of the US government to be leveraged by the Trump administration as a bargaining chip, in connection with the administration’s cutting short a joint exercise between US and South Korean armed forces. I pointed out that the timing of the White House’s move came right after news broke that China and South Korea are considering holding a joint leaders’ summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
I also suggested that, considering how central advanced manufacturing technologies have become to the US’s joint military exercises, those technologies collectively may very well be one of the key capabilities that the US sees as a pressure point. The other piece