The future of the Japan‐US alliance

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in light of emerging multilateral security dialogues, there are those on both sides of the Pacific beginning to question the raison d'être of the US‐Japan alliance. Is this alliance still viable? What kind of bilateral alliance would be most desirable in the future? Can it interact effectively with a multilateral security framework? Patrick M. Cronin, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., asks these and other questions. In answering them, he maintains that the US‐Japan security alliance is the indispensable foundation for security in the Asia‐Pacific region.