Japan's Role in International Politics since World War II by Edward R. Beauchamp

Author:Edward R. Beauchamp [Beauchamp, Edward R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136524271
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2013-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

The U.S.-Japanese Alliance at Risk

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by G. Cameron Hurst III

Foreign policy, as expected, was not much of a campaign issue in 1996. Bob Dole criticized the administration's foreign policy as “incoherent and vacillating,” and the Clinton camp parried that criticism by emphasizing the candidates' common ground on major foreign policy issues. Still, there was the president, on the eve of the first debate, earnestly refereeing negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Yasir Arafat at the White House. It mattered little that no agreement was reached; the point for Bill Clinton was to look presidential.

But crisis diplomacy and photo opportunities do not add up to a foreign policy, and that has nowhere been demonstrated more tellingly since the end of the cold war than in regard to the U.S.-Japanese alliance. Both the Bush and Clinton administrations termed it the most important bilateral relationship in the world. Why then has Japan been virtually absent from the media and public dialogue of late, and has seemingly failed to register on the administration's radar screen as well?

The media inattention is more understandable. Absent a major outbreak of violence, momentous political change, or serious economic issues, the media allocate little coverage to foreign affairs at all. But there is no excuse for the U.S. government, regardless of its party affiliation or domestic and foreign priorities, to neglect Japan even for a moment. Japan is among America's most important allies, enjoys the world's largest budget surplus, and is poised to exert greater influence internationally. But in place of earnest dialogue and efforts to adjust U.S.-Japanese relations in search of a stronger partnership, there have been acrimonious debates over trade, complicated by the criminal actions of some U.S. servicemen in Japan, leading only to rising anti-Americanism on the part of many Japanese, especially Okinawans. If the Clinton administration does no better than that in its second term, the United States may have no “partnership” to save four years from now.

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