It is often said that the US-Japanese
relationship is good under the Republican rule, but cools down when the
Democrats take office. The reason for this is unknown even among pundits.
However, as Professor Gerald Curtis of Columbia University, argued at the
Foreign Policy Roundtable on April 16, Japan needs to strengthen ties with the
Democratic Party in order to stabilize US-Japanese relations. I agree to the
view that Japan’s relationship with the United States must not be swayed by
partisan politics in Washington.
As to this issue, I would like to mention
the Anglo-American relationship in the Major era. Prime Minister-then John
Major told the press that he preferred Republican incumbent President-then
George H. W. Bush to Democrat Bill Clinton, in order to maintain staunch
Anglo-American relations. However, as Clinton was elected, the relationship
between Britain and America downturned. In those days, Britain was isolated and
dwarfed in Europe, due to domestic conflicts over ratification of the
Maastricht treaty and German unification. The relationship with the United
States recovered when Major stepped down and the Blair administration took
office (”Witnessed on the White House lawn, the ups and downs of the specialrelationship”; Independent; 2 March, 2009). Japanese politicians should not
make the same mistake as Major made.
However, if we were to reinforce the
US-Japanese relationship bipartisanly, the credential of Democrat politicians
needs to be upgraded. This concern is typically seen in the fact that the Obama
administration is dependent on Republicans for the Secretary of Defense such as
Robert Gates and Chuck Hagel. Has the Democratic Party run out of human talents
to assume responsibility in American defense? In other words, the problem is
whether there are some political leaders on the Democrat side who can execute
global strategy for America beyond partisan entanglement. In my view, the
fundamental aspects of the US-Japanese relationship are almost the same as
those of bilateral relations with the United Stats and major allies around the
world like Britain, Germany, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
Practitioners and intellectuals on the
Japanese side argue that the Democratic Party needs politicians who understand
Japanese culture and mindsets, like Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage and Michael Green, Japan Chair of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies. There is no doubt that they made a great contribution to
US Japanese relations, but that is a kind of unexpected bonus”. Unlike the era
of Ambassador Edwin Reischauer, current Japan is in no position of asking generosity
to heal wartime scars. From this point, we do not need politicians with strong
focus and background on Japan so much, but leaders who value the role of the
United States as the global superpower. As Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon
bitterly criticized that President Obama was making global security feeble by
appeasing challengers in the Middle East, and China, and also Russia, American
allies want an America that is firmly committed to the role of the superpower (”'Mystified'US slams Israeli defense minister Ya'alon's criticism of Obama”; JerusalemPost; March 19, 2014).
Therefore, in order to maintain friendly
US-Japanese relations under Democrat rule, they need to find a politician like
late Senator Henry Jackson, who was a key member in their own party and assumed
bipartisan leadership in American foreign policy and national security, rather
than people of the same cadre like Republican Armitage and Green. Are there any
politicians in the Democratic Party who can act beyond partisan constrictions
as mentioned above like Jackson did? His policy staff Richard Perle was
involved in foreign policy making in the Reagan and the Bush 43rd administrations,
instead of the Democrat team. Joseph Lieberman had been assuming himself the
right heir of Jackson in the Democrat Party, but he has already retired from
the Senate. In order to reinforce the US-Japanese alliance beyond partisanship,
The Democrat Party has to cultivate talents to manage global security.
On the other hand, as seen in the paneldiscussion on Afghan security after Karzai hosted by the American Enterprise Instituteon March 24, internationalists of the Democrat and the Republican sides explore
bipartisan policymaking, and this is a welcome step. Particularly, as we found
in protest to intervention in Syria recently, isolationism is on the rise both
in the Democrat and the Republican Parties respectively. A staunch partnership of
internationalists of both parties will be helpful to strengthen and stabilize the
US-Japanese alliance. The problem is how much influential is such partnership
of internationalists in political corridors in Washington? This is a very
interesting point.
In
view of fulfilling the role of the superpower, there are some questions that Former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must answer clearly, as she is supposed to
be the most prospective candidate for the Democrat presidential nominee. First,
how much she was involved in the Benghazi incident. This accident prevented
Susan Rice from becoming the Secretary of State. The other question to be
answered is her refusal to include Boko Haram in the terrorist list (”US SaysBoko Haram Now 'Top Priority'”; Military.com: May 16, 2014). If the president
is lukewarm against terrorists, we have to worry whether she can manage the
threat of China. If the United States were to strike a delicate balance of
keeping economic ties with China while checking its maritime expansionism as
Professor Curtis mentioned, even a trivial error could become fatal. Therefore,
we should question how well versed Democrat politicians are in security, and
whether they are firmly determined to maintain American preeminence in the
world.