Jan 19

“The US-Japan Alliance: Relic of a By-gone Era” by JET alum Michael Auslin

auslin_clip_image002The latest from JET alum Michael Auslin, a professor of Japanese history and politics and currently the Director of Japanese Studies for the American Enterprise Institute in D.C.  This one part of The AEI Outlook Series.

The U.S.-Japan Alliance:  Relic of a By-gone Era?

http://www.aei.org/outlook/100929

by JET alum Michael Auslin

The U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation was signed in Washington, D.C., fifty years ago this month. Few alliances last half a century. The fact that this one has is a testament to its strength, but it is also the result of East Asia’s failure to develop stable political and security relationships in the decades after World War II. It also reflects Japan’s postwar political realities and the choices successive Japanese governments made to maintain the country’s largely pacifist global role. Yet, the pressures on the alliance today raise questions about how well it can adapt to changes inside Japan, the United States, and throughout Asia. If the alliance is to survive, how should it change to best serve the evolving national interests of Japan and the United States?

Key points in this Outlook:

* The U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation has helped maintain peace in Asia for the past fifty years.

* Security-related issues regarding North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program and China’s growing military raise important political questions for the future of the alliance.

* Today, the Obama and Hatoyama administrations must decide if they view the alliance as a key element in their security strategies or as an outdated relic of a bygone era.

To read the whole paper, go here:  http://www.aei.org/outlook/100929


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