Japanese Security Relations in Post-Cold War Era

Evolution of U.S.-Japanese Security Relations

Prior to the collapse of the Cold War, Western as well as eastern security arrangements were defined by the bipolar world powers: the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States and the Soviet Union competed desperately for "spheres of influence" across the globe. Alliances were built upon this competition for world power between Americans and the Russians. These alliances were founded upon both military security and economics.

The American occupation of Japan following the Second World War built one of the world's strongest international relationships between two countries. On August 9, 1945, with Japan on the verge of surrender, Stalin's Soviet Union unexpectedly declared war on Japan in violation of a prior neutrality pact and swiftly claimed several Japanese islands as Soviet territory. The Soviet Union also took as many as 600,000 Japanese prisoners and sent them to concentration camps in Siberia (Saito, 1993, p. 275). These events laid the groun

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ctly at Moscow. Thus, a U.S.-China-Japan trilateral alignment took shape . Several factors generated a change in Japanese policy in foreign affairs. International prodding and dramatic changes in the geopolitical landscape are two major factors that applied political pressure on Japan to contribute more heavily to security. The American defeat in Vietnam, on the rising perception that the United States--in recession and plagued with a massive budget deficit--was a declining global power, made Japan realize that it had to alter its defense posture. At the same time, Mikhail Gorbachev had clearly begun to transform Soviet foreign policy into a less aggressive stance, making the U.S.-Soviet rivalry and the Cold War of less importance. This "superpowers-in-decline" specter marked the beginning of a shift away from the Cold War paradigm that had previously shaped Asian relations (Oksenberg, 1994, pp. 96-97). Japan responded to these changes in the geopolitical climate. Japan adopted a division of labor in its defense alliance with the United States in which the country agreed to take responsibility for defending its won air space and sea routes out to 1,000 nautical miles beyond its shores. Prime Minister Nakasone's tenure began the
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Approximate Word count = 1720
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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