Dragan P. Transforming the U.S. - Japan Military and Political Alliance in the post-bipolar era.

The thesis is devoted to defining distinctive features of the transforming process, directions of evolution of the U.S. - Japan military and political alliance, the nature of relations with national allied policies. The study clarifies what developments of Japanese national law in the field of defense have taken place since the end of the Cold War, covers adaptation of normative support for new post-bipolar world realia that is the base for military and political cooperation of the allies. The thesis predominantly analyses adapting Japan-U.S. alliance for new realia of post-bipolar world and evaluates advantages and drawbacks of this process for gaining national security interests of Japan as well as factors determining the option. It also examines dynamics and the changing role of America's network of Pacific defense systems after collapse of the Soviet Union. It is postulated that there are explicit and implicit rationales necessitating retention of a formal American strategic presence in East Asia.Re-engagement with traditional regional allies suffices for America to fill the military capability gap. Doing this is inconceivable without Japan. It is also worth mentioning that the future of the fragmented San-Francisco system is linked with the future of China as a potential competitor. In order to avert the main responsibility for shared burden the U.S. will pursue strengthening relations between the satellites themselves adhering to the principle of 'the weakest link', that is 'fastness of the chain is defined by fastness of the weakest link'. Considerable attention is paid to systematizing and analyzing Japanese approaches to functioning alliance, understanding methods aimed at providing alternative forms of military and political cooperation in order to counter the newest threats of post-bipolar era, researching of progress and embodying the most contemporary initiative of military and technical cooperation - The Western Pacific missile defense.