Notes / Asia Focus
22 February 2018
Economic Interdependence and Strategic Thinking in Sino-Japanese Relations: Reconsidering the Amendment of Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan
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Paul André
Associate Professor at the School of Political Science and Economics of Waseda University (Japan)
This paper aims at understanding the importance of economic interdependence with China in Japan’s relation to war; and its willingness to amend its pacifist Constitution and thus to legalize the use of war. I first come back to Raymond Aron’s idea that war cannot be excluded from the industrial society. But the latter changes the relation to the conflict. Then I use Dale Copeland’s model and I try to demonstrate that the Japanese government is anticipating a Chinese threat which tends to present economic interdependence as a threat and to reinforce Japan’s willingness to ensure national security by armed forces…