For the United States, the emergence of Shinzo Abe was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Abe promised to revive the Japanese economy and to revise its pacifist constitution, to allow Japanese forces to fight alongside the United States—both of which are long-standing goals of American foreign policy. But the flip side of Abe’s dynamic nationalism is an ambivalent attitude to Japan’s imperial history that threatens to alienate not just China but also key U.S. allies such as South Korea and even Singapore. That, in turn, complicates America’s efforts to build a united front that could face down
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