Commentary
The U.S.-based security alliance in the Asia-Pacific region as we know it is all but dead.
For the first time since the end of World War II, Japan has announced that it will double its defense spending. Over the next five years, its defense budget will increase from about 1 percent to 2 percent of GDP per year, or from about $50 billion to $100 billion per year. This will make Japan the third largest defense budget in the world, after the United States and China.
There are several reasons behind this drastic departure from Japan’s defense posture and several implications that attach to it….