U.S.-Japan Alliance In Major Crises

As one of the most important bilateral alliance in the world and especially in the Asia-Pacific region, the slightest change of the U.S.-Japan alliance casts a far-reaching influence on regional and world political landscape. Since its creation after the end of the Cold War, the alliance has been on an uneven road fraught with crises. From its creation in crisis to its inherent inequality, from internal contradiction to external crises, every major crisis has had a huge impact on the previous alliance system, and offered an opportunity for its further consolidation. The reason why the U.S.-Japan alliance can tide over every crisis and become stronger should be attributed to its innate"competitive interdependence", which means that with the deepening interdependence, both countries have come to realize that they can not afford the collapse of the alliance, thus would strive for coordination and compromises which in turn would further strengthen the alliance itself. On the basis of the substantial information provided by authoritative websites such as the websites of DoD (the United States Department of Defense), MOFA (Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs), CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies), Rand Corporation, Cato Institute and U.S. Enterprise Institute, the thesis focuses on three major crises experienced by the alliance, and provides necessary background introduction of its production and analysis of its characteristics, all to show the tenacious vigor and cohesion underlying the apparent frictions, which undoubtedly serves as a critical reference for China, another stake-holder in the Asia-Pacific region.