U.S.-Korea-Japan Relations: Building Toward a "Virtual Alliance"

by Ralph A. Cossa (Editor)

One relationship in the Asia-Pacific region that attracts far less attnetion than others, but that can have equally far-reaching effects on regional security, is the relationship among the United States, Japan, and Korea--the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) today and a unified Korea sometime in the future. This three-way relationship has a profound impact on the broader geopolitical environment and other crucial linkages in the region. In the future, a unified Korea that abandons the close security partnership the South now enjoys with the United States or that views Japan as its primary threat would destabilize regional security. Alternatively, a unified Korea that maintains close, constructive security relations with both the United States and Japan contributes positively to regional stability. In this volume, contributors from the United States, Japan, and the ROK address the challenges and benefits of developing a close, cooperative, strategic relationship and explain why the creation of a "virtual alliance"--through maintaining the U.S. alliances with Japan and Korea and through strengthening bilateral security cooperation between Tokyo and Seoul--is both possible and essntial for long-term peace and stability in the region.

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999