Hugging and Hedging: Japanese Grand Strategy in the 21st Century
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Samuels_Hugging and (final).pdf
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715.46 KB
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Adobe PDF
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fc531c65c6fe4f2de4fd649d8ea0f05e
Author(s)
Samuels, Richard J.
Michishita, Narushige
Date Issued
October 2012
Journal
Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates in China, India, Iran, Japan, and Russia
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
Samuels, Richard J., and Narushige Michishita. "Hugging and Hedging: Japanese Grand Strategy in the 21st Century." Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates in China, India, Iran, Japan, and Russia. Eds. Nau, Henry R., and Deepa M. Ollapally. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
After decades of accepting US supremacy in Asia as the foundation of its foreign and security policies, finding the right distance between the U.S. and China is the most important strategic choice facing Japan today. “Getting it just right” with these two powers will require both military and economic readjustments. There is a great deal at stake in Tokyo’s recalculation. Japan, China, and the United States are, after all, the three largest economies in the world, together accounting for nearly 40% of global production. Each has a deep--and deepening--stake in the other two. The United States and Japan are China’s top two trade partners. The United States and China are Japan’s top two trade partners. And Japan and China are the top two U.S. trade partners outside of NAFTA. In security terms, the United States remains the world’s only hyper power, but China’s rapid (if opaque) military modernization is shifting regional dynamics. For its part, Japan annually spends over $50 billion on defense, no trivial sum despite its self-imposed cap on spending at 1% of GDP. Japan has an impressive navy and air force and has openly debated possessing strike cap abilities. Even the nuclear option reportedly has been discussed among members of the National Diet. In short, each of the three is a bona fide current or potential “great power”--viz., each has the ability to exert its economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic influence on a global scale in ways that could alter the regional and global balances.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science
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DOI of Published Version
http://global.oup.com/academic/product/worldviews-of-aspiring-powers-9780199937479?cc=us&lang=en&
