Americas Alliances With Japan And Korea In A Changing Northeast Asia

For the past half century, the United States, Japan, and South Korea have maintained a three-cornered alliance to guarantee peace in Northeast Asia. U.S.-Japanese security relations currently thrive. However, conflicting perceptions in Seoul and Washington of Kim Jong-Ils North Korean regime and how to deal with it have generated deep concerns about the future of the U.S.-Korean alliance.

"Though it appears much has changed for the players in Northeast Asia, when considering actual shifts in military resources and alliance strategy, many things have stayed the same. When taking the role of the United States into account, there is much stability to be found. There has been little variance in the United States alliance credibility or in the number of troops stationed in the region. Acting as a buffer to North Korean aggression and a preventative backstop to Japanese remilitarization, the United States allows the regional players, especially Japan and South Korea, to focus on economic growth while avoiding confronting the thorny issues of resolving historical animosity and territorial disputes. Even for China, the U.S.'s main competitor, the American military presence, both directly and indirectly, has allowed China's economy to flourish. While conflict is possible, it is not impendingly inevitable as realist scholars might claim. Japan, South Korea and China must be prepared for conflict as tensions do occasionally rise, but the high-risk scenarios painted by many realists are unlikely to break out in Northeast Asia anytime soon. Furthermore, the Northeast Asian states see value in the American presence. Japan and South Korea, despite being heavily economically interdependent with China, will likely resist Chinese overtures to abandon its American ally until the Chinese military threat can credibly challenge U.S. firepower. Relatedly, even though Beijing would like the U.S. gone eventually, for the foreseeable future it is content to focus its attention elsewhere because the U.S. presence has also been a boon to Chinese development. In many ways, the utility of the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-ROK alliances has been a boon to all the regional players, and despite recurrent tension and conflict, the Northeast Asian states and the United States will be reluctant to solve animosity until the current status quo has drastically changed to upset the regional balance of power."--Abstract.

"This book does not argue for stronger security ties among the three countries based solely on a shared understanding of the threats posed by North Korea. Nor does it look toward containment of a rising China or resurgent Russia for its strategic rationale. Rather, the authors argue for broadening the foundation on which the three nations' ties rest. A better understanding of the complex weave of interests and values that binds the United States, South Korea, and Japan will stabilize the relationships and make them more resilient and adaptable to future developments."--BOOK JACKET.

The inconclusive outcome of the Korean War left a peninsula divided between two nations engaged in a deadly cold war. An important aspect of the continuing hostilities was America's security guarantee to South Korea. Despite enormous geopolitical changes brought by the accelerating collapse of communism, the United States has a standing pledge to go to war if necessary to thwart a North Korean attack. This volume assesses the current and future viability of the U.S.-South Korean alliance from military, political, and economic perspectives.

James Morley gives his principal conclusions about Japan and Korea in the 1950s and early 1960s. The work gives information on the recent history, politics, and diplomacy of Northeast Asia, and contains, in tabular and capsule form, useful data on political, military, social, economic, and cultural matters.