Managing Unmet Expectations: The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance

This project makes a bottom-up, zero-based appraisal of the U.S.-Japan Alliance and the alternatives both the United States and Japan face for the future of alliance management. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the relationship in order to catalyze debate regarding the Alliance’s future. In the process, the project team will identify the paths that may lead the partners separately to seek alternatives, independent of or additional to a continued but evolved Alliance. Each alternative will be defined and explored, which will allow the team to work backward and provide a richer policy menu for Alliance managers.