In her judicious survey of Japan’s economics and politics over the last three decades, Solís argues that the country has left stagnation behind to emerge as a regional “network power par excellence.” Tokyo has signed 21 free-trade agreements since the start of this century, built infrastructure projects throughout Southeast Asia that are of higher quality and more financially responsible than China’s equivalent efforts, and intensified security cooperation with Australia, India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam, and—since her book was published—South Korea. Most of this policy dynamism was the work of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his second term from 2012 to 2020. Abe proposed a policy framework of a “free and open Indo-Pacific”; promoted the cooperative security arrangement among Australia, India, Japan, and the United States known as the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue); and created the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to breathe life back into the big regional trade agreement that the United States had supported and then abandoned. It is not clear, however, that Abe’s less visionary successors will also take such a strong leadership role.
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Source link : https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/japans-quiet-leadership-reshaping-indo-pacific
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Publish date : 2023-12-12 03:00:00
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