Domestic-International Interactions and Japanese Security Studies

Abstract

This article highlights the critical structural- and domestic-level variables that will shape Japan's future security policy orientation. I argue that although most analysts recognize that both the internal and external realms are important, very few have analyzed how variables at the two levels are interrelated-a surprising state of affairs given the field's recent emphasis on domestic-international interactions. Analysts who insist on stressing factors at one level to the exclusion of the other, however, are likely to miss the most important dynamics of Japan's future security policies. We need to think more clearly about how to integrate international- and domestic-level factors and to appreciate the importance of interactions between them.