From almost every perspective, American foreign policy is in a mess, raising concern among many in Asia who believed that the enhanced focus on this region promised by President Barack Obama would provide a basis for their own strategic thinking. That heightened concern revolves partly around China’s growing hegemonism in the South China Sea, where it is building its own island on Mischief Reef, 250 km west of the Philippine island of Palawan and far from China’s shores. But it is also because of the US loss of momentum on such issues as trade. The administration is partly to blame but Congress is a bigger obstacle to coherence based on a rough consensus of what is in the US national interest.