Over the past week, we have seen more signs of the shape that international relations in East Asia will take over the coming decades.I've written before about the role that middle powers — most notably Japan, Australia, South Korea, ASEAN acting as a bloc, and to a lesser extent India — will play in the …
Tag: F-22
A perfect storm for security policy change?
The great puzzle in Japanese security policy is why despite the consensus within the LDP in favor of a more robust, independent security and persistent worries about North Korea and China among the public at large Japan has failed to spend more — or the same — on defense and made legal and doctrinal changes …
Continue reading A perfect storm for security policy change?
F-22 as a totem for China hawks
The F-22 issue continues to smolder, it seems, as Japan eyes the next-generation stealth fighter hungrily.The US Congress, however, has just passed the 2008 defense budget, which retains the Obey Amendment's prohibition on the export of the F-22.Will this be the end of Tokyo's lobbying to get the prohibition lifted in time for Japan to …
Combating the China threat thesis
Japan's Ministry of Defense has issued its first white paper as the Ministry of Defense, and it seems that this year's edition is unique in its focus on China as a threat to Japan.And it seems that the Yomiuri Shimbun is quite pleased by this, according to its editorial today. Citing America's debate on the …
The story that wouldn’t die
Bill Gertz, Washington Times reporter and leading proponent of the "China Threat" thesis, has published yet another item in his weekly "Inside the Ring" feature talking about how "pro-China officials" in the administration are undermining Japan's bid to purchase F-22 stealth fighters.I previously discussed here that General Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Defense Department's Defense …
The end of the F-22 question?
Sharon Weinberger at the Danger Room notes that General Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Defense Cooperation Agency at the Department of Defense, quashed reports that the US is prepared to sell the F-22 to allies like Japan and Israel.The Chosun Ilbo, of course, reported this immediately.There may be the occasional report that appears to contradict …
Deflating the F-22
Over at Wired's Danger Room blog, covering defense technology, Noah Shachtman writes of the long, weird history of the development of the F-22, noting that as the price of the F-22 went up, the US Air Force had to derive new roles for what was originally intended as solely an air superiority fighter.In discussing the …
Abe’s first six months
The FT's David Pilling provides a solid summary of Abe Shinzo's first six months in the Kantei.Being a summary, there is, of course, little new in this article, but it serves as a good reminder of the problems with the Abe Cabinet -- and of Abe's tendencies as a leader.I found this paragraph, though, particularly …
