Japan, the US, and Regional Institution-Building in the New Asia When Identity Matters

Japan and the United States have been uncertain, and sometimes awkward, companions for the countries of Asia in the area of regional institution-building. This study focuses on the origins of these two key Asia-Pacific countries' companionship, whose actions still weigh considerably on success or failure in this realm of regional cooperation. In identifying distinctive behavior patterns by Tokyo and Washington in the first two major cases of regional institution-building, the author argues that the concept of state identity as perceived by policymakers, alongside the structural attributes of the two countries, served as primary determinants of their foreign policy behavior. Further, with its empirically rich examination through an original 'value-action' framework for foreign policy analysis, the study makes a major contribution to the existing identity scholarship in the field of international relations, by articulating not only how identity matters, but also - and importantly - when and under what condition it likely matters.

Kuniko Ashizawa teaches international relations at the School of International Service, American University, and is also a visiting fellow at the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. From 2005 until 2012, she was a senior lecturer in international relations at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. Ashizawa's interests include Japan's foreign and security policy, US-Japan-China relations, regional institution-building in Asia, and the role of state identity in foreign policymaking, for which she has published a number of academic journal articles and book chapters, including in International Studies Review, Pacific Affairs, and the Pacific Review. She is currently working on three research projects about Japan's approach toward peacebuilding in Afghanistan, security and political minilateralism in the Asia-Pacific, and US-Japan policies and cooperation in Central and South Asia. Ashizawa was a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the East-West Center in Washington, the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, and the United Nations University (Institute of Advanced Studies) in Tokyo. She received her PhD in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Prior to commencing graduate studies in the United States, she produced international news programming for a Japanese television network based in Tokyo.

PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. The Argument
2. Where Does This Stand?
PART II: THE VALUE-ACTION FRAMEWORK AND STATE IDENTITY
3. The Value-Action Model of Foreign Policy Analysis
4. The Structural Dimension
5. The Dispositional Dimension
6. The Intentional Dimension
7. State Identity and Foreign Policy
8. State Identity: Definition
9. Identity-Value Nexus 
10. Why Identity? When Does It Matter?
PART III: JAPAN AND THE CREATION OF APEC: MITI'S QUIET MANEUVER, 1988-1989
11. Explaining Japan's Policymaking toward the Creation of APEC 
12. Historical Narrative: Part I 
13. The Value-Action Analysis: The Structural Dimension
14. Historical Narrative: Part II 
15. The Value-Action Analysis: The Dispositional Dimension 
16. State Identity: The Source of The Determinant Values
17. Decision-Making Context: Conceptualizaing a New Regional Order
18. A Dual Member of Asia and the West
19. Identity-Value Nexus 
20. Remaining Questions and Competing Explanations
PART IV: THE UNITED STATES AND THE CREATION OF APEC: GLOBAL HEGEMON AND REGIONAL COOPERATION, 1988-1989
21. Explaining U.S. Policymaking toward the Creation of APEC 
22. Historical Narrative Part I: The United States and MITI's Proposal 
23. The Value-Action Analysis: The Structural Dimension 
24. Historical Narrative Part II: The Hawke Speech and Comprehensive Policy Review
25. The Value-Action Analysis: Activation of Decision-Making
26. Historical Narrative Part III: 'An Idea Whose Time Has Come' 
27. The Value-Action Analysis: The Dispositional Dimension
28. Two Concepts of U.S. State Identity: The Sources of The Determinant Values
29. A Pacific Power
30. An International Institution-Builder
31. On Competing Explanations
PART V: JAPAN AND THE CREATION OF THE ARF: MOFA IN MOTION, 1991-1994
32. Explaining Japan's Policymaking toward the Creation of the ARF 
33. Historical Narrative Part I: The Nakayama Proposal 
34. The Value-Action Analysis: The Structural Dimension 
35. Historical Narrative Part II: MOFA's Persistent Commitment 
36. The Value-Action Analysis: The Dispositional Dimension
37. Two Concepts of Japanese State Identity: The Sources of the Determinant Value
38. A Past Aggressor in Asia
39. A Dual Member of Asia and the West
40. Remaining Questions and an Alternative Explanation
PART VI: THE UNITED STATES AND THE CREATION OF THE ARF: HEGEMONIC APPROACH TOWARD THE POST-COLD WAR ASIAN SECURITY ORDER, 1990-1994
41. Explaining U.S. Policymaking toward the Creation of the ARF 
42. Historical Narrative Part I: Appraising Past Success 
43. The Value-Action Analysis: The Structural Dimension 
44. Historical Narrative Part II and Decision-Making Activation: Lord's 'Ten Major Goals' 
45. Historical Narrative Part III: Toward the First ARF Meeting 
46. The Dispositional Dimension: Stay Engaged with Asia 
47. The Pacific Power Identity: The Source of the Engagement Value 
48. An Alternative Explanation, A Remaining Question
PART VII: CONCLUSION
49. State Identity and Foreign Policy
50. Japan, the United States, and Institution-Building in 21st Century Asia