This work takes an in-depth look at the muli-faceted contemporary relationship between Singapore and Japan since the end of World War II. It is the story of a relationship between an economic superpower, Japan, and an enterprising city-state whose leaders have sought to emulate not only Japan's economic success but several key facets of Japanese society as well. No other country surpasses Singapore in its public admiration of Japan. How is it possible for a multi-ethnic Singapore to emulate a relatively homogeneous Japan? What features of economic and political motives behind the attempt to emulate Japan? These and other questions are adressed in this work, which will be of interest to scholars of the international relations and security of East and Southeast Asia.

The central puzzle in the study of Japanese foreign policy has been why Japan has continued to play a passive role in international affairs, despite its impressive economic and political power. Challenging this central puzzle, the core argument of this study is to present an alternative path for the study of Japanese foreign policy. In fact, in recent years Japanese foreign policy has become less dependent on the United States, more strategic towards Asia, and more energetic towards international and regional institutions. One of the main features is multilateralism in Japanese foreign policy, as shown by Japan's active participation in the regional institutions. In pursuing multilateralism, Japan cooperated closely with the only durable regional body in Southeast Asia, to wit, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Given the fact that East Asian regionalism has been driven by ASEAN, it is of utmost urgency to investigate the emerging partnership between Japan and ASEAN. The central thesis of this study is thus to put Japan's ASEAN policy into a proper perspective by asserting that Japan's new policy initiatives towards ASEAN are not reactive, nor are they exceptions in a broader framework of merely reactive foreign policy.

This is the most comprehensive bibliography to date on the vast English-language literature covering the myriad aspects of peace and security issues in the East Asia/Pacific region. McClean contacted 150 key research institutions and publishers around the world for information about the most significant books, articles, dissertations, and official documents on international and intra-state security, arms control, conflict-avoiding diplomacy, and militarization in the area. He has selectively annotated 12,645 cross-referenced entries and organized them into 27 sub-regional and country chapters including two particularly extensive chapters on Japan and China and two further chapters on relations between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and on U.S. and Soviet policy.

The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 and the consequent outbreak of the Cambodian conflict brought Southeast Asia into instability and deteriorated relations between Vietnam and the subsequently established Vietnam-backed government in Cambodia on the one hand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on the other. As a result of the conflict, the Soviet Union established a foothold in Southeast Asia while China, through its support of the anti-Vietnam Cambodian resistance, improved relations with Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand. Japan's Fukuda Doctrine - it’s declared priorities of promoting cooperative and friendly relations between Communist Indochinese nations and non-Communist ASEAN countries – became increas¬ingly at odds with Japan’s role as a member of the Free World in the broader Cold War confrontation. Tokyo had to steer a path between Washington’s hard-line policy of isolating Vietnam and its own desire to prevent regional destabilization. Against this background, this book addresses the following questions: what was Japan’s response to the challenges to its objectives and interests in Southeast Asia and to the Fukuda Doctrine? What role did Japan play for the settlement of the conflict in Cambodia? How did Japan’s diplomacy on the Cambodian problem affect the Japanese role in the region? It argues that Japan’s contribution was more active than has widely been recognized.