The pictures are unavoidable. The faces of the islands' young men and women serving the U.S. armed forces look down passengers at A. B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam, and Francisco C. Ada International Airport in Saipan. The message is clear — these islands do more than fly the U.S. flag. They support the United States in the most profound way. No other U.S. community contributes more service members on the same population base. A chat with Marine recruiters in their Guam office — filled with new recruits and Marines on leave — confirms the obvious. U.S. patriotism runs deep west of the international dateline.

Yet this well is not inexhaustible. The Pacific Island and Asian nations are targets of ideological struggles over how the region's affairs and its people will be governed. Al-Qaida, Jemaah Islamia, and other fellow travelers compete for Muslim communities' allegiance through provision of services and fundamentalist education. China's expanding economic power exerts a great pull and expands China's business and political presence throughout all communities. Our "greatest generation" paid dearly to free these islands, and they chose to align with the United States. Today's challenges demand new thought and leadership.

We have a golden opportunity for a renaissance in our Pacific presence and the welfare of the island communities. In 2005 and 2006 the U.S. and Japan signed agreements that fundamentally reform the operational effectiveness of that alliance. Along with initiatives within Japan that change our basing postures and improve interoperability, the agreements create an expanded base in Guam, with Japan sharing the costs.

Immediate local benefits will flow. Guam will realize base construction and 10,000 additional service members and their families. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands will provide labor, and later host U.S. and allied training and recreational visitors. The other island communities — American Samoa and the Freely Associated States of the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia — will provide construction labor and increased tourism.

But a construction boom and bust followed by a service-oriented tourism economy is not enough. Given the stakes in what we proclaimed The Century of Asia — the emergence and re-integration of the People's Republic of China into the world economy, and the struggle of liberal society with fundamentalist Islam, among others — we need to do much more with our Pacific frontier.

We must help these communities to develop and prosper. We must show Asia and the Pacific what it means to be associated with America. We must develop human capital as priority one as well as physical infrastructure. A whole-of-government public and private sector integrated effort and investment are needed. Three related initiatives can be the foundation.