No conflict by invitation: Japan's China balancing amid US relative decline

TY - CHAP

T1 - No conflict by invitation

T2 - Japan's China balancing amid US relative decline

AU - Pugliese, Giulio

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - This chapter highlights the realist underpinnings of US–China–Japan relations. Tokyo’s China policy, throughout the early post-Cold War period, has moved within the framework of Washington’s strategic calculations to maintain primacy; after all, US global influence also rested on its capacity to harness the location and might of key regional allies such as Japan. Yet growing US fatigue over military intervention abroad coincided with a changing East Asian power balance, premised on China’s military and economic rise. On the basis of a structural realist analysis, this chapter argues that Japan would harden its security stance by the mid-2000s. By the time of the post-2012 Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands standoff, Chinese assertiveness and a forceful Japanese response made evident a new reality in US–Japan alliance politics: Washington policy-makers would now rein in some of Japan’s more assertive security initiatives and nationalistic displays. While detailing the evolution of US–China–Japan relations, this chapter disputes the likelihood of a US–China conflict of Tokyo’s making due to US leverage over Japan.

AB - This chapter highlights the realist underpinnings of US–China–Japan relations. Tokyo’s China policy, throughout the early post-Cold War period, has moved within the framework of Washington’s strategic calculations to maintain primacy; after all, US global influence also rested on its capacity to harness the location and might of key regional allies such as Japan. Yet growing US fatigue over military intervention abroad coincided with a changing East Asian power balance, premised on China’s military and economic rise. On the basis of a structural realist analysis, this chapter argues that Japan would harden its security stance by the mid-2000s. By the time of the post-2012 Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands standoff, Chinese assertiveness and a forceful Japanese response made evident a new reality in US–Japan alliance politics: Washington policy-makers would now rein in some of Japan’s more assertive security initiatives and nationalistic displays. While detailing the evolution of US–China–Japan relations, this chapter disputes the likelihood of a US–China conflict of Tokyo’s making due to US leverage over Japan.

M3 - Chapter

SN - 978-1-138-69381-4

T3 - Routledge Global Cooperation Series

SP - 113

BT - American Hegemony and the Rise of Emerging Powers

A2 - Regilme, Salvador Santino F.

A2 - Parisot, James

PB - Routledge

CY - Oxon; New York

ER -