The impact of Japan-Republic of Korea strained relations on the US-Japan-Republic of Korea security cooperation

Abstract

The purpose of my thesis is to analyse the evolution of the US-Japan-ROK security triangle and the different forms that the cooperation took over the years, while considering how the escalation of bilateral disputes between Japan and South Korea have affected the trilateral cooperation.The trilateral security cooperation between US, Japan and South Korea is a kind of security framework composed of two alliances, US-Japan and US-ROK, and a partnership between the two US allies, the ROK and Japan. The US, Japan and the ROK are three like-minded countries, and Japan and South Korea have been two crucial pillars of the US engagement in the region since the times of the Cold War, facing common security threats and hosting the vast majority of US military deployed in Asia and in the world, being respectively the first and the third countries for the number of US troops and US bases in the world. While the trilateral security cooperation appears to be natural, the fragile Japan-ROK bilateral relations can represent an obstacle to it, since, when bilateral disputes resurface, they often have a negative effect on the trilateral cooperation on security, shaking it, limiting its evolution and, in the worst cases, interrupting it. In this sense, the United States have a key role in bringing together its allies and help them narrow their differences and improve their bilateral relations, so to make a deeper trilateral engagement possible. My work is organized in three chapters. The first one analyzes the reasons of historical and territorial animosity between Japan and the ROK, starting from Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula and the normalization of their diplomatic relations in 1965. The second chapter treats the origins of the triangular security bonds during the Cold War. The third chapters examines the accomplishment of institutionalized forms of trilateral cooperation and trilateral dialogue from the 90s to the present.