Evolution of the Australia-Japan Security Partnership: Toward a Softer Triangle Alliance with the United States?
This paper examines how and why the Australia-Japan defense and security partnership has evolved, what policy implications this new partnership has for the U.S.-Japan alliance system, and what constraints the further advancement of trilateral security cooperation faces.
The U.S. strategic position and defense posture has catalyzed the evolution of the Australia-Japan security and defense partnership. This partnership has helped to sustain the U.S.-Japan alliance through, for instance, deepening Japan's involvement in defense and security arenas, as was seen in the protection of JSDFs in Iraq by Australian forces.
Still, the Australia-Japan security and defense partnership, a relatively new element in the bilateral relationship, is not based on an alliance system like Japan and the United States. It is still in a formative stage and thus requires strong shared strategic interests and common regional understandings to develop.
The convergent views and interests, especially over the approach to the rise of China as a military power, are helping the further development of the trilateral cooperation with the United States within a rapidly changing regional environment.
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Evolution of the Australia-Japan Security Partnership: Toward a Softer Triangle Alliance with the United States?
Center for Asian Studies
Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.
The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands.
The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.
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