Japan's Reluctant Realism

Foreign Policy Challenges in an Era of Uncertain Power

M. Green

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9781403962355, 9780312238940
• eBook ISBN: 9780312299804
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Asian Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

In Japan's Reluctant Realism, Michael J. Green examines the adjustments of Japanese foreign policy in the decade since the end of the Cold War. Green presents case studies of China, the Korean peninsula, Russia and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the international financial institutions, and multilateral forums (the United Nations, APEC, and the ARF). In each of these studies, Green considers Japanese objectives; the effectiveness of Japanese diplomacy in achieving those objectives; the domestic and exogenous pressures on policy-making; the degree of convergence or divergence with the United States in both strategy and implementation; and lessons for more effective US - Japan diplomatic cooperation in the future. As Green notes, its bilateral relationship with the United States is at the heart of Japan's foreign policy initiatives, and Japan therefore conducts foreign policy with one eye carefully on Washington. However, Green argues, it is time to recognize Japan as an independent actor in Northeast Asia, and to assess Japanese foreign policy in its own terms.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Figures
• Introduction
• Chapter One: The Search for Strategy and Identity
• Chapter Two: Domestic Institutions and Foreign Policy
• Chapter Three: Japan-China Relations
• Chapter Four: Japan and the Korean Peninsula
• Chapter Five: The New Eurasia Diplomacy: Energy and Geopolitics in Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus
• Chapter Six: Japan and Southeast Asia
• Chapter Seven: Multilateral Diplomacy: The United Nations, APEC, and the ASEAN Regional Forum
• Chapter Eight: Japan and the International Financial System: Lessons from the Asian Crisis
• Chapter Nine: Conclusion
• Notes
• Index