United We Stand, Divided We Fall: The Anti-US Base Movements in Okinawa and Pyeongtaek

Abstract

Why are some anti-US base movements more successful than others in influencing basing policies? Scholars have examined such factors as national security contexts, availability of political opportunities and resources to movement activists, and the use of strategic framing to explain the varying degrees of success of these movements. These existing studies, however, tend to neglect the internal dynamics of social movements and the agency of movement participants in shaping movement outcomes. This study addresses this gap through a comparative case study of the antiUS base movements in Pyeongtaek, South Korea and Okinawa, Japan. Drawing on the concept of group cohesion, this study argues that strong group cohesion in the anti-US base movement succeeded in delaying the implementation of the Japanese government’s basing policy while the anti-US base movement in Pyeongtaek failed to stop the implementation of its government’s basing policy mainly due to its weak cohesion.