{"id":3119,"date":"2012-12-17T05:30:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T19:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2013-01-10T16:20:28","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T06:20:28","slug":"reader-response-japan-and-the-future-of-asias-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/reader-response-japan-and-the-future-of-asias-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader response: Japan and Asia’s future order"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"U.S.<\/a><\/figure>\n

Peter Jennings gave a spirited response in the Oz<\/a>\u00a0last week to my thoughts about the trend of Australia\u2013Japan strategic relations<\/a>. I\u2019m sure Peter is right that \u2018there is no intent at this stage to sign a defence alliance between Japan and Australia\u2019. But of course we shouldn\u2019t wait until the decision has been made before asking whether it\u2019s a good idea to head in that direction. Peter\u2019s argument that it\u2019s a good idea raises lots of important issues. Let me just focus on a couple\u2014one about China and one about Japan.<\/p>\n

China is clearly a key factor in this question, but I\u2019m not quite sure where Peter stands on it. At one point he says Australia\u2019s defence relationship with Japan has never been developed at the expense of our relationship with China. But later he says that China would clearly prefer that it not develop any further, and urges us not to allow this to dissuade us from building stronger strategic links with Japan anyway.<\/p>\n

Whether we would be right to ignore China\u2019s concerns depends on much wider questions about how best to keep Asia peaceful over the next few decades. Peter seems to agree with the predominant US and Japanese view that the best approach is to build a solid front of like-minded countries to \u2018persuade\u2019 China to accept the status quo with minor modifications. If this strategy\u2014let\u2019s call it containment\u2014is workable, then an alliance with Japan would make some sense. But if, as I have argued elsewhere, the policy of containing China is mistaken, then so would an Australia-Japan alliance, because it would weaken rather than strengthen regional security.<\/p>\n

This brings us to the question of Japan\u2019s own role in the future Asian order. I absolutely agree with Peter that Asia, and Australia, needs Japan to do more in regional strategic affairs. But how? Peter wants Japan to keep its old role as US ally, and is surprised that I argue for a radical change in Japan\u2019s strategic posture. But I argue for radical change because I think Japan\u2019s post-war posture, which has worked so well until now, is not sustainable under the very different strategic circumstances of the Asian Century.<\/p>\n

This is the heart of the matter. Underlying our different views on these specific issues is the much bigger question about how far the rise of China changes the fundamentals of the Asian order and of Australia\u2019s strategic circumstances. Peter, I think, believes little fundamentally has changed. I don\u2019t agree. We should debate that sometime.<\/p>\n

Hugh White is professor of strategic studies at ANU and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute. Image courtesy of Flickr user Minnesota National Guard<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Jennings gave a spirited response in the Oz\u00a0last week to my thoughts about the trend of Australia\u2013Japan strategic relations. I\u2019m sure Peter is right that \u2018there is no intent at this stage to sign …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,17,52,135],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-alliance-2","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-japan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReader response: Japan and Asia's future order | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/reader-response-japan-and-the-future-of-asias-order\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reader response: Japan and Asia's future order | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Peter Jennings gave a spirited response in the Oz\u00a0last week to my thoughts about the trend of Australia\u2013Japan strategic relations. 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