In a move that offers more confusion than clarity, the U.S. Department of Defense announced earlier this month that the Indo-Pacific Command would once again be known as the U.S. Pacific Command, or PACOM. The change restores the name that was in use until 2018, but is said to signal no change in the command’s mission or area of responsibility.
It is tempting to see this as mere rebranding, more symbolic than substantive. In fact, however, the symbolism is substantive. This move has implications even if they are not yet evident.
Since its founding in 1947, PACOM has been the largest of the U.S. military’s geographic combatant commands. Headquartered in Camp Smith, outside Honolulu, Hawaii, it includes about 375,000 personnel and stretches, in the words of former PACOM commander, Adm. Harry Harris, “from Hollywood to Bollywood, from penguins to polar bears.”
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