Philippine E-Journals

he Reaffirmed US-Japan Alliance: A Liberal Project or a Realist Artifact?

Renato Cruz De Castro

Discipline: International Relations

 

Abstract:

The article examines the basis of the revitalized US-Japan security relations in the Post-Cold War period. It reviews the developments in US-Japan relations in the early 1990s and discusses the factors that led both countries to reexamine their overall bilateral relations and to reaffirm their security ties. The article then traces the intergovernmental process that resulted in the reaffirmed US-Japan security alliance in April 1996. It argues that the reaffirmed alliance is still a realist artifact as it is a response of the two allies against the North Korean nuclear arms ambition and a possible regional contingency that could result from the emergence of the People's Republic of China as a regional power.