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by Stephen Collinson ,WASHINGTON, (AFP)

In the seismic shift in world geopolitics sparked by the September 11 attacks, the United States has found itself more engaged in Asia than at any time since the Vietnam War.

A year on from the assaults on New York and the Pentagon, events have proved that though distant from the mainland United States, Asia plays a more crucial role than ever in the security of the world's last superpower.

Within months of the attacks, Washington launched a war in Afghanistan, a graveyard for centuries of foreign invaders, in pursuit of terror suspect Osama bin Laden, and his Taliban protectors.

Simultaneously, with its Afghan campaign on the line, Washington was forced to step in to cool boiling tensions between India and Pakistan, with the nuclear rivals, both trying to twist the US anti-terror war to fit their decades-long struggle, heading towards war.

And as it flushed out bin Laden's al-Qaeda network from the caves and mountains of Afghanistan, Washington was forced to look elsewhere for the group's potential hiding places, forcing it to rejig its policy on Southeast Asia.

Washington's strategy has been to encourage Asian nations to crack down on extremist groups by prioritising law enforcement, border controls and intelligence cooperation.

And it has placed renewed importance on its alliances in the region, bolstered by tens of thousands of troops in Japan and South Korea.

"For 50 years the United States has been the balance wheel of security in Asia," said Secretary of State Colin Powell in a speech to the Asia Society in June. "To this day, Asia's stability depends on our forward-deployed presence and our key alliances with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Australia." In the 2000 election campaign, President George W. Bush was pilloried for being unable to name the Pakistani President when ambushed by a Boston television reporter.

But soon after September 11, Bush nominated President Pervez Musharraf as a key US friend, after his foreign policy team strong-armed the General into joining the US campaign against his ally the Taliban. Following a terror attack on its parliament in December, India pressured Washington to press Pakistan to halt incursions of militants across the Line of Control in Kashmir.

As tensions soared, Powell led feverish telephone diplomacy to head off a South Asian war and has made two trips to the region this year to forestall a conflict which would have devastating consequences for the US campaign in Afghanistan.

The post-September 11 shakedown had a lasting effect on South Asia policy, forcing Washington to dispense with the strategy of leaning closer to New Delhi, a more natural partner due to its democracy and burgeoning market economy than military-ruled Pakistan.

Policymakers returned to the balancing act of maintaining good ties with both India and Pakistan. While satisfied with toppling the Taliban from Afghanistan, the jury is still out on the Bush administration's campaign in the country, with doubt still surrounding the fate of bin Laden and questions over the viability of the pro-US new Afghan government. Washington also turned its attention to routing out al-Qaeda sympathisers and allies of bin Laden, thought to be taking refuge in the ethnic and religious chequerboard of Southeast Asia.

"One perceived logical place that (the terrorist) go to is the Southeast Asian region," said Angelo Reyes, Philippine Defense Minister in Washington this month representing a government that is given high marks for its help in the US anti-terror effort. But its neighbor Indonesia is causing more grounds for concern despite earning Powell's full confidence during a trip to Jakarta this month.

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