Abstract

The Japan-U.S. Alliance is restructuring itself from the type of “Cold War Alliance” to the “Post-Cold War Alliance” type，with people’s growing interest in the process. Many problems become the focus of controversy such as what kind of alliance it will be，what character it will have，what influence it will make and that sort of things. The Japan-U.S. Alliance is the basis of relations between the two countries. The allied relation will reflect changes in the full-scale relations between the two. Thus，the issue of restructure the alliance involves problems not only about whether it’s reasonable or not but also about the interests and strategy positioning，what it also involves are the reconstruction of a total knowledge base of external threats and dangers and re-planning on internal cooperation mechanisms，coordination methods and the action programs. During this issue，the domestic political factors have to be considered with the international ones at the same time. From the Alliance’s history，it also involves whether converse the alliance or maintain it，making whether drastic changes or evolutionary ones，from “master-slave” type to equal or observe，from the military to the political transition or in the opposite direction，using a way of bilateral or multi-country approach even of a bilateral/multilateral alliance network，and so on. As a result，the Post-Cold War Japan-U.S. Alliance study is not only in the alliance’s causes to maintain，but also in the driving force for development，in the type of cooperation or the research of the future shape，reexamining the Japan-U.S. allied strategy and motivation. Readjusting the future direction of the bilateral relations and the impact of further perspective are involved in this study，too.

In view of this，this paper starts with the root cause analysis of its maintaining after the Cold War and makes a clear understand of the whole evolutional process as basis. It marked the relative position of Japan-U.S. security declaration，the new defense cooperation guidelines，American troops stationed in Japan in the overall process. Then it analyzed their different significance role and influence to the alliance revolution by studying in the relative qualitative positioning and inherent link of the process of “direction turn-trace transition- type transition”. By this way，this paper outlined a whole picture of the course of the Japan-U.S. Alliance transformation from the type of “Cold War” to “Post-Cold War”.

This paper is constitute of five chapters.

Chapter 1，the Post-Cold War international system and the Japan-U.S. Alliance strategy. On the major it analyzed the alliance strategy changes in the Post-Cold War international system and answered the questions that why alliance could maintain and how to maintain. For this reason，this chapter analyzed the problems it faced from these perspectives：the international system changes impact on Japan-Us relations and the alliance relationship；the alliance’s role in the U.S. global and Asia-Pacific strategy；the relative between Japan-U.S. Alliance and Japan’s great power strategy. It pointed out that revolution of the alliance is directly related to the “normal country” strategy of Japan and the global hegemony and Asia-Pacific hegemony of the U.S.. Besides that，Japan’s “normal country” and the “ordinary alliance” strategy of the two support each other.

Chapter 2，“re-definition” and direction change of the Japan-U.S. Alliance. Mainly clear the location and significance of the specific event or process of “re-definition” in the Japan-U.S. Alliance revolution. Therefore，this chapter started the analysis of connotation and extension of “re-definition” with studying of premise and foundation，objectives and strategies，processes and methods. And then inspected it in the alliance’s Post-Cold War evolution process，investigated the status and role of treaty amendments，defense cooperation guidelines，as well as the evolution of the alliance relationship. By this way，clearly defined its tractive role in the changes of Japan-U.S. Alliance after Cold War，figured that “re-definition” is not only a process in the 1990s，but also overall direction identification on the Japan-U.S. Alliance in the post-Cold War changes. It not only ended the alliance’s drift but also began the process of continuous re-defined by Japan and the U.S.，so that alliance and cooperation concept updated，during this process，“re-definition” changed itself in logic and method.

Chapter 3，the new defense cooperation guidelines and the restructuring of the Japan-U.S. Alliance. On the basis of comparing the old and the new defense cooperation guidelines，the paper studied in institutional change on defense cooperation；figured out the relationship between the new defense cooperation guidelines and the alliance future design；pointed out that Japan-U.S. alliance cooperation in the new system settled by the new cooperation guidelines signs that the alliance cooperation separated itself from the Cold War into a new track，which is actually what “re-definition” means. However，this re-definition is just a “baseline” but not “cap”.It indicated not only the Japan-U.S. cooperation accessing to a new track，but also that Japan’s great power strategy entered a new phase. Thus，the Japan-U.S. Alliance had been given a new military，security，political and strategy value.

Chapter 4，the reorganization of American troops stationed in Japan and the transformation of the Japan-U.S. alliance. This section mainly studied in the impact to the allied transformation from U.S. troops stationed in Japan by making the Japan-U.S. strategic consultation as the core and base. It cleared the universality of Japan’s reorganization through the analysis of the restructuring of the U.S. military and the particularity through the Japan-U.S. strategic dialogue and consultations，which reveals nature of reorganization of “alliance restructuring actually but not troop adjustment”. The Alliance had partly completed its transformation mission marked by formulation of common strategic objectives，establishment of the role and capacity shared responsibility system，as well as the implementation of “reorganization route map”. It had entered a new stage of common action and practice from the beginning of the theory study，the framework of collaborative research. By this way，interpreted the security treaty what completed the alliance’s substantive evolution after the Cold War.

Chapter 5，the future of the Japan-U.S. alliance and China’s Strategy. In this section，the paper revealed the relationship between the national strategic objectives and the means of Japan and the U.S.，the impact on the fate of their countries from alliance motivation and behavior，and then pointed out the Japan-U.S. Alliance and the trend of development goal. All of these came from four “constant” perspectives which contained the state identify，mechanism design，ideal model and the alliance plight. It focused on the arguments about their alliance concept. It analyzed several alternative policies that China could choose theoretically and figured out that China should establish reasonable countermeasures according its national interests on the basis of weighing the pros and cons.

To sum up，the Post-Cold War Japan-U.S. Alliance has not only theoretical significance but also practical aspect. In space-time coordinates of the Post-Cold War international order and evolution，the passage of time made conditions for grasping the overall changing process of Japan-U.S. alliance relations；the extension wided vision in its changing direction，path，their relative location and extent of changes. This space-time evolution made the Post-Cold War Japan-U.S. Alliance overall situation of reform clear. That is，during these years after the Cold War，the Japan-U.S. Alliance metamorphose gradually in the process of transition on “direction-track-type” and on the way of “Japan-U.S. security declaration—new defense guidelines—force adjustment”. What support it from the behind are respective national strategies of Japan and the U.S. Thus，the alliance transformation is in essence the miniature of Japan-U.S. relationship evolution and their respective national strategies. It not only influences on the future structure of bilateral relations，but will also affect future regional order in East Asia and the construction and reconstruction of geopolitical situation.