David Shambaugh, a China expert at George Washington University, has a straightforward op-ed in today's IHT that should serve as a wake-up call to Kasumigaseki.Shambaugh writes:Going forward, Washington must build on its successes, but it must also recalibrate its strategy to manage regional complexities. An effective American policy in such a complex region requires closer …
Tag: US-Japan alliance
Reading Packard on the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty
On my way back to Japan, I began reading Protest in Tokyo, a classic account of the crisis surrounding the approval of the 1960 revision of the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty by George Packard, president of the United States-Japan Foundation.As Prime Minister Abe forges ahead in his campaign to abandon the postwar regime, I think …
Continue reading Reading Packard on the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty
Is $6 billion too high a price?
As the Diet session winds down — and the Upper House elections loom — the Upper House has passed a bill approving Japan's commitment to executing the 2006 agreement on the realignment of US forces in Japan.Mainichi reports that the bill was opposed by all opposition parties, meaning that the bill passed by the relatively …
The revisionists ascendant
Western commentators who only intermittently pay attention to Japan seem to be befuddled by the Japanese constitution. They seem to have a hard time grasping the difficulties associated with changing it, the totemic significance it has been made to bear by both pacifists and revisionists — and thus tend to assume that revision is easy, …
Benign neglect for the alliance?
Upon further reflection, I wonder if the Asia team that the Bush administration has assembled — which I previously discussed here — for its final years in office might be a good thing for the US-Japan alliance.For too long, the alliance has been a cozy love fest. Even in rough patches, the alliance has been …
Gaiatsu revisited
After reading this post by Matt Dioguardi at Liberal Japan. and reading that MTC was "not thrilled" with yesterday's admittedly dyspeptic post about gaiatsu and constitution revision, I feel that it is necessary to clarify about what the US should do over the coming years as Japan debates constitution revision.Pace Matt Dioguardi, gaiatsu is not …
No gaiatsu on revision
Oh, to be the "grand strategist" author of best-selling books — and to be the peddler of a strategic concept that purports to explain everything.Clearly, that's the ticket to being able to get away with writing blog posts like this one by Tom Barnett: "Japan will and must un-pacify." In a single thirty-word post, Dr. …
Who to believe?
Earlier this week I noted that Condi Rice had told Japan that the resolution of the abductions issue was no longer an obstacle to the removal of North Korea from the US State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.Indicating just how serious this issue is to Tokyo, Yomiuri (article not online) reported yesterday that …
Alliance tension out in the open
The Asahi Shimbun's English edition printed a story today suggesting that US Secretary of State Rice told Japanese officials last month that resolving the abductions issue is not a precondition for the removal of North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.In previous posts such as this one, I suggested that Japan seems …
Asia’s shifting balance
The past week has brought a host of stories pointing to how the balance of power — both globally and in Asia — is shifting, suggesting that the assumptions made by each major regional power will have to change accordingly.First, Taiwan's place as the most likely cause of war between China and the US (with …
Tobias S. Harris 