Alliances between sovereign states are among the least stable
political associations. Despite professions of fidelity and common
purpose, most are effective for only short periods, and only as
long as it suits their interests. The German-Japanese alliance of
World War II was not so much a marriage of convenience as a long
and uneasy engagement. It was maintained because breaking the
engagement would have reduced the prestige of each nation-state.
Germany and Japan each found the existence and policies of the
other convenient. From 1933-1945, both powers challenged the
international order; other than this, nothing else united Germany
and Japan. Even while they shared some of the same opponents,
German and Japanese antagonism toward the Allies involved different
objects of contention and questions of timing. Consequently,
coordination of German and Japanese policies did not follow.
Johanna Menzel Meskill argues that the German-Japanese alliance
failed, not only because each power failed separately to attain its
goals, but because as allies the powers failed to take advantage of
their association. The failure resulted to a large extent from the
discordance between their political goals and the means necessary
to attain them. This work in diplomatic history is a careful
analysis of presuming identities in a world of diplomatic
differences. In a new introduction to the book, Thomas Nowotny
looks back on the alliance from a historical perspective. He
concludes that both parties overestimated the potency and
effectiveness of their military power. Like many before and some
after, they more generally subscribed to the offensive use of
military power and effectiveness that the history of the twentieth
centery has proven unwarranted.
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