US military strategy and East Asia

Abstract

The radical reshaping of US military strategy that had begun in the months following the inauguration of President George W. Bush was given further impetus by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. These changes have had immense repercussions for East Asia, as the Bush administration has shown itself more forthright than its predecessor in its advocation of the US-Japan security alliance, and considerably cooler towards China-developments which some commentators have attributed to the rise in the influence of neo-conservatives in the US. In the light of these shifts in alignment, Koji Murata, associate professor of diplomatic history at Doshisha University, examines the security implications of the US's overwhelming military superiority, both for US-Japan relations and for East Asia as a whole. The author argues that, just as the rift over Iraq has exposed fault lines in some of the US's most long-standing alliances, US relations with Japan and South Korea are also in urgent need of re-evaluation.