While America Slept

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The Obama administration, in its first few months in office, has paid so much attention to the current and potential opponents of the U.S. that some fear we have forgotten our traditional allies. Great Britain and Japan have been solid friends of the U.S. for many years and, although their loyalty is not in question, times may be changing. On March 17th, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) assembled a panel of experts to discuss whether or not the U.S. can still rely on Britain and Japan.

As Paul Wolfowitz, a visiting scholar at AEI, pointed out, in many ways Britain and Japan make natural allies for the United States. Both are island nations with advanced economies that have a strong influence over their respective regions. Both have vibrant democracies, and share liberal values with the U.S.

Why, then, is the nature of our relationship with these two countries on the verge of change? Ted Bromund of the Heritage Foundation, and a former lecturer at Yale, tackled the question from the British perspective.

Bromund’s initial reaction was that perhaps Britain may be unable to rely on the U.S., not the other way around. He was dismayed and embarrassed by President Obama’s reception of Prime Minster Gordon Brown earlier this year, quipping that you should never send a foreign leader home with a collection of DVDs as a gift. Bromund characterized the current relationship between the UK and the U.S. as “awkward” despite general good feelings from both sides.

“President Obama’s dismissive treatment of Gordon Brown earlier this month, I believe, is part of a broader strategy,” said Bromund. “This strategy seeks to appease foreign policy problems and allow the Administration to focus on domestic policy by conceding spheres of interest to powers such as China, Russia and Iran, often at the expense of the U.S.’s traditional friends.”

Besides some cultural insensitivity, Bromund identified several other areas where the relationship may soon experience turbulence. “First, Britain will be pressured to internationalize its financial sector, and it will place similar pressures on the United States. This will be intensely controversial in this country. Second, there is no likelihood that Britain will increase its military spending…As a result, the U.S. will be increasingly forced to go it alone in Afghanistan while the UK will continue its retreat from strategic reality.”

Though U.S.-Britain relations may be cooling slightly, Michael Auslin of AEI argues that we can undoubtedly “still rely on Japan.” Auslin pointed out that in comparison to the U.S.’s relationship with Britain, the relationship with Japan is “much less natural and much more forced.” Regardless, he argues that “in the future, the United States and Japan will be linked much more closely by a sense of shared value.” He refers to the political system that has taken root in Japan which, although very different from our own, is still one of the world’s must robust democracies.

The wild card in U.S.-Japan relations is the potential for a major shift in Japanese domestic politics in the near future. This may be a formative time in Japan as an opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, becomes increasingly popular and may soon replace the Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power for most of the last 50 years, as the dominant political player. Because Japan will be dealing with these changes for the first time, when and if they come, the U.S. cannot be sure how this will affect the U.S.-Japan relationship.

Despite some of the uncertainties associated with any country in transition, Auslin insisted that “The United States is still able to depend in many crucial ways on Japan: as the leading forward base for our troops; as our most steadfast democratic ally in Asia; as a country that very much identifies with the long-term goals that the United States professes.” These positives will be tempered, however, by natural changes in Japanese politics and the ebb and flow of the financial market, which is causing problems in Japan to rival any other nation.

Daniel Allen is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.