2012-09-20 By Richard Weitz Japan’s defense procurement policy maintains a desire for autonomy, corporate nurturing, and technology diffusion. Although it is somewhat more open to arms exports and collaborating with foreign companies than in the past, defense procurement still suffers from two grave defects. First, the high degree of protectionism…
2012-09-19 by Robbin Laird Instead of flying into buildings, Muslim extremists are killing American representatives abroad. In a vote of thanks for ending the Gaddafi repression, the American ambassador to Libya has been humiliated and killed. In an act reminiscent of the Nazis burning down the Reichstag and blaming various…
2012-09-17 By Richard Weitz The Japanese government continues to allocate approximately one percent of the country’s GDP to the military, a fairly low level compared to most countries. But the enormous size of Japan’s economy means that even this formula generates one of the largest defense budgets in the world.…
2012-09-13 By Richard Weitz Japan’s relationship with China, burdened by history and intermittent geopolitical disputes, is complex, made ever more so by the PRC’s meteoric rise in recent years. Coinciding with Japan’s “lost decade,” China enjoyed rapid industrial growth during the 1990s and is becoming the world’s second-largest economy according…
2012-09-13 By Richard Weitz Japan’s support for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom stimulated further efforts to restructure both the legal and organizational dimensions of the country’s national security policies. This was driven by the clear need to enhance Tokyo’s ability to respond to internal and external security threats…
2012-09-11 By Richard Weitz Unlike in Europe, where the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact ushered as a new era, the Asia Pacific region did not experience an abrupt phase transition during the late 1980s and 1990s. From Japan’s perspective, the demise of the…
2012-09-11 By Harald Malmgren and Robbin Laird The Euro crisis is defining the end of a period of history. The period since 1991 has been defined by the expansion of Europe, the consolidation of NATO, and America as the hinge that held much of the strategic map together. At the…
2012-09-06 In a wide-ranging discussion with Air Vice-Marshal (Ret.) John Blackburn, now the Chairman of the influential Australian think tank, the Kokoda Foundation, the key challenges and contributions, which Australia can bring to an evolving Pacific challenge, were highlighted. John Blackburn Biography A key opportunity for getting it right is…
