Leading the Way: USINDOPACOM's Role Amid South Korean-Japanese Tensions

Abstract

Following the Korean War, the US forged an Asian alliance structure with South Korea and Japan. This structure served as the foundation for today's regional security framework, which still serves to deter North Korean and Chinese aggression. Unfortunately, recently escalating tensions between South Korea and Japan threaten to undo that security framework. This paper argues that US policymakers should leverage USINDOPACOM amid these escalating tensions to maintain a working relationship between these key alliance partners. Policymakers should leverage USINDOPACOM because US strategy requires healthy relationships between alliance partners to succeed, because the South Korean-Japanese relationship requires outside intervention to function, and because operational-level intervention offers opportunities unavailable at the strategic-political level. The paper goes on to recommend solutions USINDOPACOM can implement to strengthen the alliance structure.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 12, 2020
Accession Number
AD1104437

Entities

People

  • Mitchell J. Cok

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Alliances
  • Asia
  • Cold War
  • Department Of Defense
  • Information Operations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Korean War
  • Political Science
  • Regional Security
  • Second World War
  • Security
  • South Korea
  • Treaties
  • War
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Economics
  • International Relations, focusing on Korea-Africa and North Korea-South Korea relations, and Nigeria-Latin American Relations.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.