The Catalytic Factor of the Sino-Japanese Security Dilemma: The New 1997 Defense Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation
Abstract
This research starts with two questions of whether and why China regarded the New 1997 Defense Guidelines (NDG) as a national threat. To answer the first question, this research analyzes and categorizes Beijing s responses to the NDG. The result of the analysis suggests that the U.S.-Japanese security cooperation, which tried to strengthen their national security, conversely caused Beijing s suspicion and led China to react diplomatically and militarily. Given Tokyo s action and Beijing s reaction, these two states were sinking into the spiral model of a security dilemma. To find the answer of the second question, this thesis uniquely combines two theoretical perspectives Stephen M. Walt s balance of threat approach and Alexander Wendt s constructivist theory. Given that Japan has not revealed its aggressive intentions considering Tokyo s upholding a 1 percent norm of the defense budget since the end of World War II, Walt s realist logic cannot persuasively explain why China perceived that the NDG was the outcome of Japanese aggressive intention. To supplement Walt s logic, this research uses Wendt s perspective. As a result, the Chinese fear about a militarizing Japan has persisted and affected Beijing s negative interpretation, which because of Tokyo s aggressive intentions for the resurgence of its militarism, produced the NDG.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA619647
Entities
People
- Semin Ahn
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School