This original book systematically examines Japan's defense engagement with its strategic partners since the end of the Cold War based on Japan's national security strategy. The author maps three defense engagement activities: military exercises, capacity building, and defense equipment transfer and technology cooperation - and subsequently evaluates these against the three national security objectives: deterrence, cooperative security, and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision. The book asks two important research questions: why is Japan active in defense engagement with the armed forces of its strategic partners? And, what purposes do Japan's self-defense forces pursue? Through the ten carefully selected cases of strategic partners: Australia, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, ASEAN, the UK, France, NATO, and the EU, the book follows a structured, cross-case comparison based on the analytical framework developed for the research. It also discusses the evolution of Japan's postwar defense policy, providing a solid background for the case studies. The book overall argues that, while the Japan-US alliance is still the most indispensable, Japan's strategic partnerships are a valuable instrument of deterrence that contributes to Japan's national security objectives. In order to more effectively pursue these objectives and thus secure the national interest, Japan must pursue a purpose-driven defense engagement.

Autorentext

Nanae Baldauff is Partners across the Globe Fellow at the NATO Defense College (Rome, Italy), the first Japanese national to be selected for this position. She is Associate Research Fellow at UNU Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), Bruges, Belgium, and Senior Researcher at Keio Research Institute at SFC, Japan. She has a Ph.D. in political science (Ghent University, Belgium) and holds a master's degree in European governance (University of Luxembourg). She serves as Director for NATO and EU of the International Security Industry Council of Japan. Nanae is a recipient of the Japan Foundation fellowship. Her area of interest is foreign and defense policy (Japan, Indo-Pacific, and Europe), security communities, defense industry cooperation, and security in and from space.