Katzenstein And Okawara Analysis

Pacific Norms Katzenstein and Okawara are constructivists. Constructivists believe that domestic normative context rather than international factors impact the decisions made by foreign policy ministers. Katzenstein and Okawara believe the normative structure and social context of Japan will prevent Japan from remilitarizing. The collapse of the Soviet Union put Japan’s role on the international stage in question and there was anxiety concerning Japan’s future willingness to use the military for its goals. Realists argued that Japan would use this major restructuring of the international stage as an opportunity to return to a normal state. In the early 1990s the future of Japan seemed very unclear and the decision to remilitarize seemed wholly …show more content…
In Fact, Singh’s main argument is relatively unchanged from theirs; Japan will use domestic factors to determine changes in Foreign Policy and will not use the military for aggression. The differences emerge when discussing what the domestic factors determine the foreign policy, and what role the military plays. To Katzenstein and Okawara the domestic factors were the structure of the Japanese government and the normative context for making decisions. Japan was dedicated to being a peace state that the Japanese Defense Agency (JDA) could make any major decisions or execute any plans without a level of civilian bureaucrats approving it first. These guardians of peace were borrowed from the economic sectors and political sectors of government and provided Japan with a comprehensive understanding of national …show more content…
This is because the international state and non-combative military seem contradictory to Katzenstein and Okawara’s argument. Katzenstien and Okawara could not predict the SDF could evolve into a force for good. Deploying soldiers for humanitarian development and relief purposes was unprecedented. Once communist tension was gone, soldiers could be deployed for humanitarian work without the risk of seeming threatening or challenging. The result of new international stimulus required Japan to be more active in the post cold war era and so Japan adapted the SDF to be a more useful tool that also adhered to the comprehensive definition of defense the constructivists themselves used. Without opposing ideologies to recruit nations to their cause, Japan could enter any country that wanted them to peacefully in order to develop them and stabilize the region, which led to increased international security. Therefore, this new role of the SDF is applicable with constructivist theory. The current position Japan maintains fits with constructivist model but it needs to be updated in order to reflect the