Japan made great strides towards developing an independent foreign policy, even as it hewed closer to the Global North’s positions on the burning issues of 2023.
The revised National Security Strategy makes a cogent case of Japan’s evolving character as a decisive security actor. The conversation in Tokyo demonstrates a renewed sense of urgency in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sino-US strategic contest, and post-pandemic mainstreaming of economic security.
It would not be a cliche to describe the strategic contours of Asia as being at the crossroads of history. A number of significant events are influencing the likely course that the collective destiny of the region could possibly take in the future. Some of the key issues and trends have been analysed in this year’s Asian Strategic Review
Humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use, dreadfully experienced in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has had little policy impact on concluding a genuine nuclear disarmament convention.
With increasing North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and Chinese nuclear force modernisation, the prospects of indigenous nuclear weapons acquisition by Japan and South Korea cannot be ruled out.
Japan’s proposal to host a NATO liaison office in Tokyo is facing objections from NATO members like France, who view it as a distraction from the alliance’s core task of ensuring security in Europe.
