The book studies the development of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision. As strategic competition grows, the lessons from the pandemic, the deepening Sino-US rivalry, and the United States losing grip on the current world strategic environment all compel Japan to focus its attention on the Indo-Pacific region. The volume examines Japan's foreign policy through an analysis of its strategic agenda, economic calculations, maritime security concerns, and soft power policies. It looks at Japan’s relations with United States, Australia, India, Vietnam, Africa, South Korea, Indonesia, and the United States in the context of Japan’s bilateral and multilateral arrangements. An important contribution to the study of politics in the Indo-Pacific region, the book will be an indispensable resource for students and researchers of political science, international relations, foreign policy, geopolitics, security studies, strategic studies, as well as area studies – namely East and Southeast Asian studies and Indo-Pacific studies.

The purpose of this book is to introduce readers to INDOPACOM, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in a region covering approximately 50 percent of the Earth from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. INDOPACOM has not received much attention in Japan compared to USFJ or the US Seventh Fleet. This book shines a spotlight on INDOPACOM in an effort to promote an understanding of its various aspects. The mission of INDOPACOM is to protect U.S. territory, people, and national interests. However, it also includes protection of the countries within its geographic scope that are U.S. allies and security partners. INDOPACOM and its precursor Pacific Command, established in 1947, have always been major contributors to the peace and safety of Japan in the post-World War II era. In view of the importance of U.S. interests in Northeast Asia, the region also has two Sub-Unified Combatant Commands called United States Forces Japan (USFJ) and United States Forces Korea (USFK). Each of these organizations strives to strengthen the relationship with the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Republic of Korea armed forces. Together, the United States, Japan and our partners around the globe will continue to safeguard the rules-based security order that has underpinned peace and prosperity for decades.

Examining the pivotal relationship between Japan and Southeast Asia, as it has changed and endured into the Indo-Pacific Era

This book analyses the growing relationships among India, the United States and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region, which can broadly be defined as the space encompassing both the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, though different nations have their competing visions of its extent. While on the one hand we have an ascendant China in all respects, at the same time, the US has continued interests in maintaining its leadership role in the region and beyond. Washington appears to employ a hub-and-spoke model where its most important ally in the region, Japan, fits in perfectly as a point from which to connect to the rest of the region. However, the critical role will be that of India, which is not an American ally but is key to many American plans in the region. Will India cooperate?By examining the rapidly-evolving relations among the three countries, this book explores India's position in this region. Crucially, this book will analyse how the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic will upset power relations in the region. It is suitable reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of international relations, politics, security studies, political science, and geopolitics.

This book explores the most important strategic questions about the emerging Indo-Pacific region by offering an incisive analysis on the current and future patterns of competition and cooperation of key nations in the region. Examining emerging policies of cooperation and conflict adopted by Indo-Pacific states in response to a rising China, the book offers insights into the evolving Indo-Pacific visions and strategies being developed in Japan, India, Australia and the US in reaction to shifting geopolitical realities. The book provides evidence of geopolitical advances in what some see as a spatially coherent maritime zone stretching from the eastern Pacific to the western Indian Ocean, including small island states and countries that line its littoral. It also analyzes the development and operationalization of Indo-Pacific policies and strategies of various key nations. Contributors provide both macro and micro perspectives to this critically significant topic, offering insights into the grand strategies of great powers as well as case studies ranging from the Philippines to the Maldives to Kenya. The book suggests that new rivalries, shifting alliances and economic ebbs and flows in the Indo-Pacific will generate new geopolitical realities and shape much else beyond in the twenty-first century. A timely contribution to the rapidly expanding policy and scholarly discussions about what is likely to be the defining region for international politics for coming generations, the book will be of interest to policymakers as well as students and academics in the fields of International Relations, Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Diplomacy and International Law, East and South Asian Studies, East African Studies, Middle East Studies, and Australian Studies.

This book focuses on the Indo-Pacific region’s growing prominence as the world’s major powers gravitate toward this space to expand their influence. With dynamic shifts taking place in the globe’s most strategically volatile region, Indo-Pacific Strategies aims at clarifying the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, expounded both as a strategic concept and nascent region, thus contributing to the burgeoning policy and academic debate. The book offers indispensable insights and appropriate remedies to maintain the rules-based international order as threatened by China’s increasingly assertive and bellicose posturing. It offers up-to-date analyses of Covid-19-related geopolitical trends, the strategies of various Indo-Pacific states against the backdrop of great power competition, the increasingly confrontational stance of Indo-Pacific states against China and the 2020 US election results. This unique book presents deep insights into the roles of Eurasia, small island states, the Middle East and Africa, in addition to Australia, India, Japan and the US, thereby providing much needed comparative studies. It also closely investigates the strategic and tactical operationalization of the Indo-Pacific, making it an essential read for scholars, policymakers, students, and strategists in the field of international politics and Area Studies. Excerpt from the foreword by ABE Shinzō, (former) Prime Minister of Japan "I think this book is the timeliest attempt to bring together the wisdom of eleven people to present a multifaceted view of the FOIP [Free and Open Indo-Pacific]. As a reader, I would like to express my gratitude to the editors and contributors for their valuable intellectual contributions." See the preview function on this website to access the full text.