Current trends suggest that the fog of war continues to make strategy an opaque enterprise notwithstanding enormous U.S. investments in high-tech weapons, intelligence capabilities, and homeland defense. This edited volume includes essays originally presented at the IISS Global Strategic Review, which was held in Geneva on September 7-9, 2007.

North Korea possesses nuclear weapons, while Iran is poised to acquire them in the next decade. How the United States and other nations seek to roll back these burgeoning nuclear powers is among the most urgent issues of the day. At stake is regional security in the Persian Gulf and Northeast Asia, America's standing abroad, and prospects for nuclear non-proliferation. This book offers complementary international perspectives on these threats and the peaceful responses to grapple with the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs. Leading authorities provide balanced analyses-together with new chronologies and maps-that make the volume an invaluable reference for all those interested in understanding options available in dealing with Iran and North Korea. The contributors to this volume offer complementary international perspectives on the critical security issues that stem from the challenges posed by Iran and North Korea. No other work combines the analysis of the two countries and explores the threat posed by each to regional stability and world order. The book examines how and why attempts to curb the nuclear programs and broader political ambitions of each nation have failed. It also examines how each nation, in its own way, has managed to defy the world's preponderant power, the United States, as well as other major powers and the United Nations. And it offers analysis on where the fractured and oscillating relations with these two nettlesome actors are heading and the long-term implications of their current trajectories for nuclear proliferation, deterrence, alliance management, regional security, and world order. Expert, balanced analyses-augmented by new chronologies and maps-make the volume an invaluable reference for all those interested in understanding the options available in dealing with Iran and North Korea.

CONTENTS Introduction A New Situation The National Defense Program Outline Review Key Issues Host Nation Support Theater Missile Defense Technology, Procurement, and Arms Exports Recommendations Appendix A: The Modality of the Security and Defense Capability of Japan: The Outlook for the 21st Century Foreword The World and the Asia-Pacific after the Cold War The End of the Cold War and Qualitative Changes in the Security Environment Multilateral Cooperation Centering on the United States Roles of the United Nations and Other Regimes for Cooperative Security Four Types of Likely Danger Characteristics of the Security Environment in the Asia-Pacific Region Basic Thinking on Japan's Security Policy and Defense Capability Active and Constructive Security Policy Multilateral Security Cooperation Enhancing the Functions of the Japan-U.S. Security Cooperation Relationship Maintenance and Operation of Highly Reliable and Efficient Defense Capability The Modality of Defense Capability in the New Age From the Cold War Defense Strategy to the Multilateral Security Strategy The Role of Defense Capability for Multilateral Security Cooperation The Enhancement of the Japan-U.S. Security Cooperation Relationship Maintenance and Qualitative Improvement of Self-Defense Capability Other Items Pertaining to Defense Conclusion Appendix B: Acronyms

During the Cold War, the US-Japan alliance was at the core of American presence, power and prestige in the Asia-Pacific region. When the Cold War ended, many questioned whether the alliance would continue to serve US and Japanese interests. In the late 1990s the USA and Japan answered that question with a formal reaffirmation of the security treaty and the upgrading of bilateral guidelines for defence co-operation. But the alliance has also faced new challenges: domestic opposition to US bases in Okinawa; Chinese criticism of a stronger US-Japan security relationship; and growing international frustration with Japan's economic policies. The alliance remains crucial to both nations' interests, but the management of bilateral security ties has become far more complex. This is an explanation of the inner workings of the US-Japan alliance. It recommends approaches to sustaining this critical bilateral security relationship. The authors are scholars and practitioners who understand where the alliance came from, how it is managed, and the strategic decisions that will have to be made in the future.