 Complete the following phrase:  In the early twenty-first century, the strategic preoccupation of the United States with Iraq and Afghanistan served as a distraction from major power shifts in the Asia-Pacific, brought about by increased Chinese economic power, which undermined Americas traditional role in the region. In the long term the United States has sought a policy of soft containment of China by organizing strategic partnerships with democracies at its periphery. While US alliances with Japan, Australia and India now form the bulwark of this policy, the development of closer US military ties to India has been a complex process since the 