{"id":74978,"date":"2022-09-06T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T02:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=74978"},"modified":"2022-09-06T12:21:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T02:21:38","slug":"from-the-bookshelf-line-of-advantage-japans-grand-strategy-in-the-era-of-abe-shinzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/from-the-bookshelf-line-of-advantage-japans-grand-strategy-in-the-era-of-abe-shinzo\/","title":{"rendered":"From the bookshelf: \u2018Line of advantage: Japan\u2019s grand strategy in the era of Abe Shinzo\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Michael J. Green\u2019s volume<\/a> on contemporary Japanese grand strategy is one of the latest in a growing repository of studies shining a spotlight on the recent resurgence of Japan\u2019s national power and purpose\u2014a process largely presided over by the late prime minister Shinzo Abe.<\/p>\n

Like his previous magnum opus on American strategic engagement in Asia, By more than providence<\/em><\/a>, Green now applies his treatment of grand strategy to modern Japan. This is a necessary intervention because of still lingering misperceptions that Japan has been rudderless in articulating or implementing any form of well-crafted strategic approach that adequately addresses the imposing challenges it now faces in the Indo-Pacific. Naysayers still view Japan as a \u2018crippled giant\u2019, hobbled by constitutional and self-imposed fetters upon its national power, with declining demographics and mired in economic sclerosis. Green sets out to prove them wrong.<\/p>\n

In Green\u2019s conception, grand strategy is \u2018comprehensive use of all instruments of national power beyond just military means\u2019 to achieve national objectives. This is set within a realist framework drawn from international relations theory, which he has employed in previous works. It neatly divides Japan\u2019s efforts to improve its strategic posture into the categories of \u2018internal balancing\u2019 and \u2018external balancing\u2019 against threats and rivals. In the former, states \u2018maximize their own relative military, economic, or other strengths\u2019, while the latter entails building \u2018alliances to restore a favourable balance of power\u2019.<\/p>\n

With this essential guiding framework in mind, the book examines how these two (interactive) mechanisms have been deftly exercised by Tokyo to improve its deteriorating strategic position in the Indo-Pacific. In the first instance, it has done so by reforming its security apparatus, restructuring its defence architecture and recalibrating its military forces. In the second instance, it has capitalised on its deep alliance relationship with the United States, as well as expanded its range of security partners by building enhanced ties with Australia, India and the Philippines, for example.<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s book takes a long view of Japan\u2019s strategic posture and is infused with historical references and insights into the philosophical streams of strategic thought and their legacies in Japan. He reveals the intellectual pedigree of today\u2019s strategists through historical vignettes on influential thinkers such as Inazo Nitobe and Kakuzo Okamura (though Kita Ikki is curiously absent). But the book\u2019s title\u2014Line of advantage<\/em>\u2014is taken from a quote by Aritomo Yamagata, Japan\u2019s first army chief of staff, two-time prime minister and \u2018elder statesmen\u2019 (genr\u014d<\/em>) of the Meiji period, and is cleverly chosen to convey the immutability of the strategic predicament that the country faces as a result of its geography, scarce resources and history.<\/p>\n

Aritomo declared in 1890 that Japan had to think beyond its immediate territorial defense to consider where to draw the \u2018line of advantage\u2019 (riekesen<\/em>) to shape the external environment and prevent a rival power from controlling critical access points to Japan.<\/p>\n

The upshot of this dilemma has been the historical division between the \u2018continental\u2019 school of strategic thinkers who prioritise Japan\u2019s engagement with mainland Asia and the \u2018maritime\u2019 school that recognised Japan\u2019s destiny as an insular trading power. After disastrous incursions into continental Asia, through the occupation of Korea and Manchuria and a quagmire conflict with China in the 1930s and 1940s, the maritime school returned to the fore. Indeed, official Japanese white papers self-characterise the country as a \u2018maritime nation\u2019. This provides the raison d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em> for alliances and partnerships with other maritime powers today (including through the Quad<\/a>), and an appropriate concentration on naval and sea power.<\/p>\n

Green argues that the era of the Yoshida Doctrine, when Japan mutely sheltered under the US-alliance umbrella while building its economic prowess during the Cold War, is now truly closed as Japan steps into a more self-reliant and internationally proactive security role in the Indo-Pacific. Much of the credit for this redounds upon Abe, and the author\u2019s admiration for the late prime minister is manifest throughout.<\/p>\n

Without rehearsing the litany of Abe\u2019s achievements towards this outcome and his central role in bringing about a quiet transformation in Japan\u2019s strategic posture, it\u2019s worth flagging one example that exemplifies the new security identity Japan now projects. Among Abe\u2019s many triumphs, the \u2018free and open Indo-Pacific\u2019 concept stands out as a key success. With it, Tokyo championed a grand \u2018vision\u2019 for the Indo-Pacific to achieve security, stability and prosperity as part of a rules-based order. That Tokyo was able to influence the US to make the free-and-open concept a central plank of its own Indo-Pacific strategy and bring about adoption or buy-in from other regional powers such as Australia, India and ASEAN is testament to its continuing impact. What\u2019s more, during the volatile administration of President Donald Trump, many argued that custodianship of the liberal international order had (temporarily?) passed into the hands of Abe and Japan.<\/p>\n

Back in 2001, Green wrote a seminal work on Japanese security strategy, Reluctant realism<\/em><\/a>, in which he argued that Tokyo was grudgingly beginning to face up to the need to improve its security posture as new risks began to emerge. Now, thanks principally to the extraordinary efforts of former prime minister Abe, detailed in this new book, Japan is in a far better position to do so. This is fitting testament to Abe\u2019s statesmanship<\/a>. Green aptly concludes that this newly proactive Japan is here to stay, declaring that \u2018the strategic trajectory that was consolidated under Abe is not likely to change soon\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael J. Green\u2019s volume on contemporary Japanese grand strategy is one of the latest in a growing repository of studies shining a spotlight on the recent resurgence of Japan\u2019s national power and purpose\u2014a process largely …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1049,"featured_media":74982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[312,56,135,1276,507],"class_list":["post-74978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-grand-strategy","tag-indo-pacific","tag-japan","tag-japan-self-defense-forces","tag-shinzo-abe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the bookshelf: \u2018Line of advantage: Japan\u2019s grand strategy in the era of Abe Shinzo\u2019 | 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\/from-the-bookshelf-line-of-advantage-japans-grand-strategy-in-the-era-of-abe-shinzo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the bookshelf: \u2018Line of advantage: Japan\u2019s grand strategy in the era of Abe Shinzo\u2019 | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michael J. 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