The United States-Japan-China Triangle in the Post-Cold War Early Decades: A Case Study of Applied Political Science

This book examines the post-Cold War U.S.-Japan-China Triangle through the lens of two core international relations variables: power and security. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S., as the sole superpower, aimed to prevent the rise of any rival in Asia or elsewhere that could threaten its global position. This approach aligns with a realist view of international relations, championed by scholars like John Mearsheimer, tracing back to the principles of interstate competition seen as far back as the 1648 Westphalia Treaty and the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. The book argues that the U.S. aims to prevent China from becoming a revisionist power by strategically using its alliance with Japan as a deterrent within the American-led regional order.
Historically, the U.S.-Japan-China relationship has seen consistent U.S. support for Japan, often at China’s expense, except during World War II. Since the 19th century, the U.S., alongside European powers, pressured China through treaties such as the 1844 Wanghia Treaty and direct interventions like the Opium Wars. Japan’s industrialization after the Meiji Restoration led to imperialist ambitions that eventually clashed with Western interests, culminating in Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor—a short-lived break in the U.S.-Japan alignment. After the Communist rise to power in China in the late 1940s, the U.S. renewed its strategic ties with Japan to contain Chinese influence, solidified by the 1951 security treaty.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
I.1 Background to the Study
I.2. Statement of the Problem
I.3. Research Objectives
I.4. Research Questions
I.5. Research Hypotheses
I.6. Structure of the Book
Chapter 1 The Duality of Power and Security: A Review of the Literature
1.1. The Pursuit of Power (Animus Dominandi) and the Quest for Security (Animus Securitas)
1.2. Defense Vs. Offense
1.3. Energy Security
1.4. Summary
Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework and Research Methodology
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Theoretical Framework: Power in a State System
2.3. The Analytic Model
2.3.1. The Argument
2.3.2. Dependent Variables: Power and Security
2.3.3. Independent Variables: The Balance of Power, and Interaction Outcome
2.3.4. The Proposed Linkages between the Independent Variables (the Balance of Power and the Interaction Outcome) and the Dependent Variables (Power and Security)
2.4. Research Design
2.4.1. Introduction
2.4.2. Units of Analysis
2.4.3. Data Collection
2.4.4. Data Analysis
2.5. Summary
Chapter 3 East Asia’s Major Drivers in the Post-Cold War Early Decades
3.1. Introduction
3.2. The U.S.-Japan Alliance in the Complexity of the Triangle
3.2.1. The Paradox of More Power and Less Security
3.2.2. Japan’s Economic Sovereignty in Question
3.3. The China Factor: Implications for the Triangle
3.3.1. China’s Rising Power
3.3.2. China’s Rising Economy and Its Prospects in the 21st Century
3.3.3. The China Security Threat in East Asia: Perception and Reality
3.4. Summary
Chapter 4 Hegemony in East Asia’s Power and Security Calculations
4.1. How Hegemonic was post-Cold War America?
4.1.1. Hegemony and the “New American Century”
4.1.2. U.S. Economic Hegemony
4.1.3. Unilateralism: A Tool of Hegemony
4.2. Taiwan: A Case Study of hegemony
4.3. The New Century’s U.S. Security Role in East Asia: Reality and Prospects
4.4. Summary
Conclusion
C.1. Findings
C.2. Implications
C.3. Limitations of the Study
Bibliography
Index

Dr. Jalel Ben Haj Rehaiem, three-time Fulbrighter, three-time awardee from the United States State Department upon completion of three Fulbright programs, and alumnus of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), the University of Pittsburgh (1997/98), was a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at North Central College, Naperville, Chicago (2005/2006), Japan Foundation Fellow (2008), and an International Research Collaborator with ARENA, Tsukuba University, Tokyo. He is currently a scholar on U.S. foreign policy in East Asia and an international news media consultant with a panoply of international news stations in three languages: English, French, and Arabic.

Dr. Rehaiem has also taught American foreign policy for 25 years, from Tunisia to the United States and the Persian Gulf. He has supervised tens of MA dissertations on subjects ranging from the U.S.-China relationship to political discourse analysis related to U.S. presidents’ and State Secretaries’ series of speeches on various issues and across different spans of time in the political history of the United States.

Moreover, Dr. Rehaiem has published a series of articles in SCOPUS-indexed journals, including ‘The North Korea Review’ (Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies, Seoul, South Korea) – “The Trump-Kim ‘Ripeness’ Paradox and the Problematic ‘Precipitants’”; ‘The International Journal of Humanities and Social Science’ (George Mason University, U.S.) – “The Price of the U.S. Entanglement in China’s Domestic Affairs: The Chinese Civil War as a Case Study”; and ‘Asian Social Science’, Canadian Center of Science and Education – “The United States-China Mutually Assured Distrust.” Dr. Rehaiem is currently working on an article deciphering China’s Afghanistan dilemma in the aftermath of the 2021 U.S. hasty withdrawal and the perceived strategic United States defeat in Central Asia.

Hegemony, strategic rivalry, animus belligerendi, animus dominandi, longitudinal analysis, extraterritoriality, power, security, international relations, Wanghia Treaty, Opium Wars, China, Taiwan, Japan, Meji Restoration, East Asia, negative security factor, ASEAN, North Korea, nuclear weapons, Theater Missile Defense (THAD), John Mearsheimer, Wang Guangya, Peter W. Rodman, Christopher R. Hill, Chalrmers Johnson, Ezra Vogel, Bruce Cumings, John K. Fairbank