What is it about?
Japan seems to have been stuck with the image of an significant actor in international relations. After all, it has renounced its capacity for war with Article 9 while steering clear of any development related to nuclear weapons. It's not surprising that academic work on the issue of North Korean nuclear armament, at least those written in English, has either excluded Japan or lumped its role under the leadership of the United States. While this article doesn't explicitly make claims to the contrary, it does uncover the discursive forces that gave rise to the above opinion in the first place. Specifically, I argue that the concept of power commonly deployed by IR theories, which conflates power with capability, is partly responsible. Instead, when we see power as relational, the same texts that espoused this opinion also contain many examples of the Japanese government exercising power over the US come to light.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Is Japan an insignificant actor in international relations? Its military and economic prowess would say otherwise. Yet, foreign policy analysis and IR literature continue to see Japan as an anomaly. Not only does such a dogma substance an inaccurate backdrop for analysis, but as far as ideas can become self-fulfilling prophecies, it can also steer actors toward behaving in ways that realize these inaccuracies. How tension aggravated over the Korean Peninsula in the first five years of the George W. Bush administration is an example of this.
Perspectives
As this article has demonstrated, literature is pointing to Japan's growing assertiveness over the issue of the Korean Peninsula. This trend has met with enthusiasm on the parts of the US and realist scholars, since it appears that their claims can finally be applied to Japan. Nevertheless, a more assertive Tokyo may actually be more problematic for Washington as Japan continues to exercise power in a way that is quietly and cautiously obstructionist. Also, given the fact that not much had changed in terms of material conditions in the last decade, the argument that Japan has finally succumbed to the way of realpolitik is not very convincing. At the end of the day, Japan's North Korea policy will still provide a test case for a possible changing identity in its foreign policy.
Professor Linus Hagström
Swedish Defence University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Dogma of Japanese Insignificance: The Academic Discourse on North Korea Policy Coordination, Pacific Affairs, September 2006, Pacific Affairs,
DOI: 10.5509/2006793387.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
