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Victor D. Cha is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Obres de Victor D. Cha

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Cha's book starts with an interesting question--why does Realism fail to explain the acrimony present in Japan-ROK relations--and offers an interesting solution--that the degree of cooperation between these two nations is a function of each country's interpretation of U.S. actions in the region.

On a basic level, Cha's observation is a sound one: when both states fear a lessening of the U.S. security presence in Northeast Asia they are more likely to put aside their differences in order to protect against common regional security threats. Conversely, when both Japan and the ROK feel confident in a continuing U.S. military presence, they feel they have the leeway to engage in disputes over military, economic, and political matters.

That Japan and South Korea would feel compelled to seek new (albeit less desirable) allies in the wake of weakening U.S. commitment is common sense. But it's hard to take the argument beyond that, because despite Cha's protestations to the contrary, historical animosity, domestic factors, and the persuasion of individual politicians do exert influence over their conduct of foreign policy. More broadly, Cha's argument founders on two main, interrelated flaws: Cha's attachment to his pet theory and the impossibility of quantifying the ratio of friction to cooperation within the Japan-ROK relationship. In other words, the lack of an objective means to measure friction or cooperation allows Cha to emphasize whichever element best suits his argument even in the face of alternate explanations for state behavior. He also contradicts his own interpretations of historical events (e.g. the Carter administration's ultimate decision not to redeploy from South Korea either did or did not reassure its allies, depending on the exigencies of Cha's argument) and makes illogical statements (e.g. Kim Dae-jung was arrested on trumped-up charges of instigating riots in Kwangju that were actually the result of his arrest--a chronological impossibility).

It's hard to tell whether this is more the result of shoddy editing (which is evident throughout--parenthesis are frequently left unclosed, and Japanese words are misspelled) or a function of Cha's inability to consider aspects of the historical record that disprove his thesis, but I rather suspect the latter. Furthermore, this book was published in 1999; the latest date in the text itself is, I believe 1997, and I think it says something that Cha has not revisted this theory since them. (Indeed, I would be interested to hear Cha's interpretation of how the Sunshine Policy, friction over the DPRK hostage crisis, and the Six Party talks (among other developments) fit this theory.)

End verdict: while this book is worth reading for students of Northeast Asian relations, that worth lies more in the opportunity to question Cha's thesis than it does in the thesis itself.
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Trismegistus | Mar 25, 2009 |

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ISBN
15