| |
|
Home
Current Issue
Archive
About the Journal
Author Guidelines
ADBR Competition
Subscribe
Contact
Kokoda Foundation
|
|
Japan’s Defence Dilemma
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan
Volume 1, Number 1 (November 2005), pp. 59-72.
Abstract
America is currently benefiting from unprecedented alliance contributions from Japan. The logical next step is for Japan to breach its long-held constitutional prohibition on collective self-defence. However, freeing up the constitutional strictures on participating in collective self-defence means not only becoming a ‘normal’ state, but also having a ‘normal’ alliance with the United States. Herein lies Japan’s defence dilemma. It wants to become a ‘normal’ state, but it does not necessarily want a ‘normal’ alliance with the United States. It fears entanglement in regional and global conflict and wants to preserve the strategic freedom it exercises under constitutional constraint.
About the Author
Aurelia George Mulgan is Associate Professor of Politics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy. She specialises in the study of Japanese politics, political economy, and foreign and defence relations. She has been the recipient of a Japan Foundation Fellowship for research on US-Japan relations and an Abe Fellowship for work on Japanese peacekeeping. She has published four books on Japan, including the award-winning The Politics of Agriculture in Japan (Routledge 2000), as well as Japan’s Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reform (Asia Pacific Press 2002), Japan’s Interventionist State: The Role of the MAFF (RoutledgeCurzon 2005) and Japan’s Agricultural Policy Regime (RoutledgeCurzon 2006). She is the author of forthcoming publications on ‘Why Japan Still Matters’ and ‘Japan and the Bush Agenda: Alignment or Divergence.’ a.georgemulgan@adfa.edu.au.
|
|
