Maritime Strategy and National Security in Japan and Britain: From the First Alliance to Post 9/11 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1906876274 ISBN 13: 9781906876272

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub, 2012

Synopsis

Positioned within the comparative literature on Japan and the UK, the volume will have wide-ranging appeal including studies in Anglo-Japanese relations, naval and military history, and studies in East Asian defence and security, including Anglo-American and US-Japan strategic interests.

About this title

From the Author:

In 2008, Japan and the UK celebrated 150 years of diplomatic relations. To celebrate the military dimension of these ties, the Department of War Studies, King's College London, and the Embassy of Japan in London co-organized a one-day conference titled 'Seizing the trident, drawing the sword: Anglo-Japanese military relations from the alliance to an inter-dependent world'. The topic, focusing on matters of strategy and military affairs, was relatively 'unusual' for an academic conference on Japan and the UK. This book represents the culminating phase of the original project.
The idea for the original conference has its roots in the enduring admiration in Japan for the 'British military experience', and in a sense of curiosity for a country that many Japanese scholars and military officials considered having several similarities with Japan. After all, both Japan and the UK were and are, 'two island nations' - many commented to this author. Militarily, however, this notion seemed to be applicable only to the pre-war period, and the navy-to-navy relationship was one of the first components to be mentioned. What this notion exactly meant in the contemporary world was a different question. The meaning was never too clear, and people had very different views of what this notion entailed, if anything at all. 
In conversations with Japanese and British friends and colleagues, it was often the case that similarities in military affairs were either dismissed (both sides pointing out the constitutional limitations that made the Japanese and British experiences very different), seemed to be limited now to the struggle to cope with reduced military capabilities, in comparison to the pre-war era, and a shared strategy of alignment with the United States.
This book investigates the strategic meaning for the UK and Japan to be 'island nations'. 

From the Back Cover:

Sharing a similar geography at the opposite ends of the Eurasian Continent, and dependent on maritime trade to supplement the lack of strategic resources, both the UK and Japan relied on the sea for their economic survival and independence as sovereign states. From the first alliance in 1902, through the World Wars, to the more recent operations in the Indian Ocean and Iraq, sea power has played a central role in the strategic calculus of both countries. This thought-provoking book, comprising contributions from a group of international scholars, explores the strategic meaning of being an island nation. It investigates how, across more than a century, sea power empowered - and continues to empower - both the UK and Japan with a defensive shield, an instrument of deterrence, and an enabling tool in expeditionary missions to implement courses of action to preserve national economic and security interests worldwide.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1906876274
• ISBN 13: 9781906876272
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 255
• Editor: Patalano Alessio