Overview

This open access book argues that Japan-ROK security relations were formed in the process of adjusting the threat perception gap and policy conflict between the two countries. Conventional analyses using a “cooperation or conflict” dichotomy are too limited to capture the complex coordination of interests that security relations entail. In comparison, this book focuses on how, as they interacted on security concerns, Japan and the ROK had different threat perceptions and foreign policy orientations that resulted in friction over the means and methods of responses and shines a light on the changes apparent in the adjustment process. The author aims to elucidate how Japan and the ROK approached security cooperation over the period from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. As Japan and the ROK looked to reconcile the differing political positions involved in these security and détente requirements, they explored and began to show new developments in bilateral security cooperation. This book provides a new perspective on Japan-ROK security relations and through this lens a broader view of international relations in East Asia. It also proves useful in understanding bilateral cooperation in the security field following the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

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9789819784783

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Choi Kyungwon   Choi Kyungwon is a professor in the Faculty of Foreign Studies of Tokoha University in Japan. His areas of specialty are East Asian international relations, Japan-Republic of Korea (ROK) relations, and ROK politics and diplomacy. Choi earned his undergraduate degree from the Department of North Korean Studies of Dongguk University in the ROK and his master’s degree in North Korean security policy from that department’s graduate school. He went on to earn a doctorate in Japan-ROK security relations in Japan from Keio University’s Graduate School of Law. Subsequently, he was a research fellow at the Keio Institute of East Asian Studies, and became an associate professor at the Center for Asia-Pacific Future Studies and at the Research Center for Korean Studies at Kyushu University, before joining the Tokoha faculty in 2020. Choi’s key publications include Reisen-ki Nikkan anzen hoshō kankei no keisei [The formation of Japan-ROK security relations in the Cold War period] (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2014), which received an Association for Contemporary Korean Studies in Japan award; Nikkan ga kyōyū suru kinmirai e [Toward a near future shared by Japan and the ROK] (Tokyo: Honnoizumi-sha, 2015), on which Choi was a coeditor; “Window of Opportunity for a New Détente: ‘Tight Link Strategy’ of Moon Jae-in Administration and ROK-DPRK-US Triangle,” Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies, Vol. 9, 2020; “Nikkan kankei no hen’yō: Rekishi mondai to keizai anzen hoshō no ishu- linke-ji” [Transformation of Japan-ROK relations: Linkage of the history issue and economic and security issues], Gendai Kankoku Chōsen kenkyū [The journal of contemporary Korean studies], Vol. 19, 2019; “Japan’s Foreign Policy toward the Korean Peninsula in the Détente Era: An Attempt at Multilayered Policy,” The North Korea International Documentation Project Working Paper Series, Wilson Center, 2017; and “Nikkan anzen hoshō kankei no keisei: Bundan taiseika no ‘anpo kiki’ e no taiō, 1968” [Japan and Korea seek national security cooperation: The “security crisis” of 1968 under the divided system], Kokusai seiji [International politics], No. 170, 2012, which garnered a Japan Association of International Relations Incentive Award.

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