Cooperation beyond rivalry: World system evolution and United States-Japan relations since 1945

This dissertation examines U.S.-Japan relations from a theoretical standpoint of the long cycle model of global political change in particular, and evolutionary world system in general. It departs from conventional analyses of its chosen topic, most of which have proceeded from the perspective of policy effects or have been short term issue-oriented. In contrast, this dissertation offers a novel approach from the perspective of historical-structural analysis of global system and its evolution. As such, this study represents a modest contribution to a growing body of empirical research using evolutionary approach to world politics: application of an innovative perspective on U.S.-Japan relations since the end of World War II as well as a "test" or "demonstration" of the descriptive, analytical, and hypotheses-generating power of that theory.; The descriptive power of the evolutionary theory of world politics has been sufficiently demonstrated in this study to encourage its continued usage, while the analytical power of the theory has been demonstrated through the integration of the long cycles of political leadership with co-evolutionary aspects and cumulative trends of the global system. On both of these accounts, this study's reliance upon the evolutionary theory of world politics, in comparison with realist and institutionalist approach, not only proved viable but also advantageous. Moreover, it has brought to light aspects of the U.S.-Japan relation that could not be captured (and, most likely, would have been entirely neglected) from an alternative "mainstream" theoretical vantage point.; This dissertation also shows that evolutionary approach to world politics enables us to formulate hypotheses about the future course of global development based on the study of past experiences, which are significantly different from those put forth by scholars working with mainstream international relations theories.