How Japan can strength its leadership in the Indo-Pacific Security?: Using SNA to determine the Japan’s needs for success that will align with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Background and Research Question

In June 2019, the United States Department of Defense published Indo-Pacific Strategy Report [1], subtitling “preparedness, partnerships, and promoting a networked region.” This strategy is to focus on enforcing long-term peace and prosperity, given the increasingly complexed security environment in the Indo-Pacific mainly threatened by China, Russia, North Korea, and non-state actors such as ISIS. In this strategy, Japan was set to be a critical partner under the U.S.-Japan Alliance not only for the presence of American Military in Yokosuka, Okinawa, and other areas of Japan, but also for the significant contribution in the finance of strategy. Indeed, given the fact of the Japanese constitution that Japan allows the use of force only for the purpose of self-defense, it is critical for Japan to take initiative in economic and diplomatic leadership in the Indo-Pacific, which would substitute a military leadership.

Consequently, Japan’s national security council created the foreign affairs strategy known as Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy [2] which is to focus on the active participation in Indo-Pacific diplomacy, beginning with one of the biggest economic agreement signed in 2018: Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). CPTPP was negotiated among Japan and 11 countries around the Indo-Pacific, which is now the third-largest free-trade area in the world by GDP, following North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and European Union (EU)’s single market. The Indo-Pacific trade represents 13.4% of the world economy, approximately US$ 13.5 trillion. This economic agreement was a place for Japan to practice its leadership upon the fact of the U.S. withdraw from its negotiation in 2016.[3] 

Although Japan was able to lead some participants of Indo-Pacific nations through CPTPP, it is yet clear that CPTPP solely by itself does not stabilize Indo-Pacific security and there is still much space for Japan to grow diplomatic talks and initiate further international agreements and cooperation. This research project will therefore examine the current network of the Indo-Pacific countries and determine how Japan can strengthen its leadership in the area. In order to understand the level of Japan’s engagement toward each country bilaterally as well as multilaterally, the project will look at a number of international trade agreements and high-level diplomatic talks. The research question that will guide this project is: what further cooperation (security/trade agreements and bi-lateral/tri-lateral meetings) is in need of Japan with which countries?

Data and Methodology

I will utilize data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the United States Department of Defense, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which I have already obtained. The nodes will be only the 27 states and non-state actors introduced in the U.S. Department of Defense’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Report. Each country will be assessed by how deep they are engaging with Japan, analyzed by several attributes with two purposes: 1) levels and types of economic and diplomatic cooperation and 2) levels of Japan’s engagement in the international system, which data mostly will be according to National Defense Program Guidelines [4]. This analysis seeks were to engage more. There are three principle goals [5] in Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, which are 1) Rule of Law 2) Economic Prosperity 3) Peace and Stability. 2-mode issues will be utilized to examine which goals Japan has been successfully promoting to which nations. Size of the nodes will reflect the size of the economy (i.e. Gross Domestic Products). Additionally, if foreign direct investment (FDI) [6] from/to Japan, the U.S. and China provides further insights into the node’s direction (in/out-degree), it will help understand which other nodes have deep ties with these three main countries in the Indo-Pacific network.

Nodes:

•       United States, China, Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK: North Korea), and non-state actors, Japan, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Australia, The Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, New Zealand, Mongolia, India, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, United Kingdom, France, and Canada.

Attributes:

•        Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy

o   Hard Cooperation: counterterrorism, Disaster Risk Reduction, Counterpiracy, Mine Cleaning, Post-Conflict Management

o   Soft Cooperation: Infrastructure, Energy, Environment/Health, Peacebuilding, Government Affairs (Human Resource/Legal), Private Sector

o   Maritime military security: Port, airport, ships

•        National Defense Program Guidelines

o   Trade and Agreements: CPTTP, Japan’s Infrastructure Projects, FDIs, bi-lateral/tri-lateral agreements relating to economic and diplomatic cooperation

o   High-Level Diplomatic Talks: East Asia Summit (EAS), The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, ASEAN Defense Minister’s Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)

2-mode issues:

• Three principle goals 1. Rule of Law 2. Economic Prosperity 3. Peace and Stability
• Indo-Pacific Nations

Why SNA?

SNA is the greatly appropriate tool for answering my question because SNA enable me to measure the impact of economic and diplomatic cooperation through ties, which I believe essential to understand current international relations and international security. Furthermore, SNA will help organize and measure the level of Japan’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific countries and help find out the potential needs to deepen its ties with other countries on the specific area of cooperation.

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[1] “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report,” The Department of Defense, 2019 https://media.defense.gov/2019/Jul/01/2002152311/-1/-1/1/DEPARTMENT-OF-DEFENSE-INDO-PACIFIC-STRATEGY-REPORT-2019.PDF

[2] “Towards Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2019, https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000407643.pdf

[3] Torrey, Zachary, "TPP 2.0: The Deal Without the US," The Diplomat, 2018, https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/tpp-2-0-the-deal-without-the-us/

[4] “National Defense Program Guidelines,” Cabinet Secretariat, 2018 http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/siryou/pdf/2019boueikeikaku_e.pdf

[5] “A New Foreign Policy Strategy: Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2019 https://www.asean.emb-japan.go.jp/files/000352880.pdf

[6] "Country Fact Sheets 2019”, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2019, https://unctad.org/en/Pages/DIAE/World%20Investment%20Report/Country-Fact-Sheets.aspx