Increasing both the Quad’s membership and influence can serve as the basis of the Biden administration’s strategy to check China’s maximalist ambitions in Asia. As events across the Atlantic have shown, Biden’s faith in America’s system of alliances, partners, and friends is well-placed. It’s time for the United States to double down on that conviction before Putin’s maniac decisionmaking in Eastern Europe is replicated in East Asia. 

In early March, Biden convened a call with the Quad heads of state to discuss the situation in Ukraine. They agreed to meet again at some point in Tokyo “in their continuing pursuit of a free and open Indo-Pacific.” The Quad should invite South Korea to attend this meeting as both an observer and presumptive member to remain true to that endeavor. The primary agenda item should be how to most effectively expand and strengthen the Quad so that it can replicate both the coalitional unity of purpose and unassailable resolve that Putin has forced upon Europe before Asia is similarly plunged into mindless chaos.

Nicholas Hanson is a class of 2024 joint degree MPP and MBA candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School. He previously served as an intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps and made rotations to East, Southeast, and South Asia.

Image: Reuters.