As the United States begins to shift its focus away from Iraq, there is a case to be made that the Asia-Pacific region will command the country’s attention. 

As Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib opined in the newspaper’s Tuesday edition, “economic pressures alone will produce a shift eastward.”

It’s fitting, on the eve of APEC, that U.S. leaders are now frequently discussing what many in Hawaii have long held: “The world’s strategic and economic center of gravity is shifting east.”

That’s how Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it as she explained the need for a ”substantially increased investment—diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise—in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Read the full column.