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Building the Asia-Pacific: Japanese and United States foreign policy toward the creation of regional institutions, 1988--1994

Posted on:2006-02-10Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University)Candidate:Ashizawa, Kuniko PFull Text:PDF
GTID:1456390008959418Subject:Political science
Abstract/Summary:
The United States and Japan supported the creation of Asia-Pacific multilateral institutions, first in the economic realm (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) and then in the security (the ASEAN Regional Forum), after having comfortably tolerated a conspicuous absence of such regional arrangements for more than four decades. In both cases of regional institution-building, Japan was an early proponent of the idea to create these regional groupings, taking unusually active diplomatic initiatives. The United States, on the other hand, took little initiative in the first stage, initially responding indifferently or negatively to the institution-building proposals. Yet, at one point, it started to favor the proposals, and eventually, participated in both cases of institution-building. Given these characteristics of the two countries' attitudes, the chief question addressed is: Why did Japan and the United States each exhibit such distinctive behavior patterns across the two institution-building cases of APEC and the ARF, despite obvious sectoral differences---economic and security---between the two regional institutions?; The analytical framework employed in this study is a "tripartite dimensional approach" of foreign policy analysis, consisting of three analytical dimensions---structural, dispositional, and intentional dimensions. Major findings of the study are two-fold. First, structural factors explain key aspects of the foreign policy behavior of the two countries---Japan's activism and United States' passive and lukewarm attitude toward the institution-building of APEC and the ARF. This is because structural factors determine a state's general orientation toward a particular mode, in terms of each issue-area of foreign policy. Second, values (some sort of pro attitude toward actions of a certain kind) stemming from the concept of national identity, perceived by policymakers, are essential factors that determine each country's preference for a "multilateral" and "pan-Pacific" framework as a new arrangement for intra-regional management. The prominence of national identity factors (Japan: a country with a "war aggression past against its neighbors" and "a dual membership with Asia and the West," and the United States: a "Pacific power" and "international institution-builder") is attributable to the specific types of decision-making of Japanese and the U.S. foreign policymaking in this study: decision-making contexts in which a relatively long-term perspective is required for policy formulation.
Keywords/Search Tags:United states, Foreign policy, Japan, Regional, Asia-pacific, Institutions
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