Explaining Alliance Sustainability : The U. S. -Japan Military Relationship

This study seeks to explain the rationale for a post-cold war continuation of the Japanese-American military relationship. By constructing an analytical framework that integrates a comparative approach to the study of national defense policy with aspects of the foreign policy/area studies and international relations theory's literature dealing with the nature of military alliances, this study identifies, accounts for the support of, and assesses the influence of alliance functions beyond the United States and Japanese external security environments that encourage maintenance of the US-Japan Mutual Cooperation and Security Treaty. An integration of the national defense policy literature highlights four comparative aspects of a state's defense policies that are useful in understanding the environment surrounding the US-Japan military alliance. A comparison of these four components when applied to the national security policies of Japan and the United States reveals the existence of greater fundamental differences than similarities in their security policies. Fundamental differences in national security orientation (Japan - economic; US - military) lay the foundation for the military alliance and its functions. These differences create and reinforce a condition of mutual dependency that enables the alliance to survive despite theAir Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Explaining Alliance Sustainability : The U. S. -Japan Military Relationship', published 1997 under ISBN 9781423570301 and ISBN 1423570308.