The demise of a landmark arms control accord earlier this month means that U.S. intermediate-range missiles could soon be fielded to the western Pacific, and Pentagon leaders will likely consider Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and the Republic of Palau in Micronesia their most viable basing options.

On August 3, a day after the United States formally exited the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, recently confirmed U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper remarked that he hoped to see previously banned missile types deployed to Asia “sooner rather than later.”

Signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, the INF Treaty banned ground-launched ballistic missiles and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, applicable to conventional weapons as well as to those with nuclear warheads...

...

Guam is a key American military base and logistics hub, but “China no doubt has every inch of the island targeted,” according to one arms control analyst. Instead of concentration on Guam, distributing missiles throughout the first island chain, an arcing line running from the Kuril Islands through Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and then west through Indonesia, would be more survivable, and more effective.