Mind the Eu-japan Security Gap
With international order and the rule of law under threat, arguing for enhanced security co-operation between Japan and the EU would appear relatively straightforward. But the conclusions of this edited volume suggest a notable gap between expectations and delivery in realizing a closer partnership, despite the important progress made in recent years, whether through the 2018 Eu-japan Strategic Partnership Agreement or independent security innovations such as the EU’S European Global Strategy of 2016 and its Common Security and Defense Policy, or Japan’s promotion of new principles governing its participation in collective self-defense in 2015.
To explore this gap, the authors commissioned chapters jointly authored by European and Japanese academics to analyze threat perceptions and forms of co-operation in a range of security areas including regional security, military relations, terrorism and organized crime, climate change and energy security, human security and civil protection, cybersecurity, economic security and human migration.
Economic and digital security have been most pronounced, but other areas less developed, such as military and regional security. Sometimes this reflects constraints of capacity, public opinion (particularly in Japan) and differing threat perceptions (e.g. over the level of threats posed by China and Russia), and the role of external actors such as the US. Notwithstanding, the authors note the progress in co-operation in anti-piracy initiatives and especially in Japan’s bilateral partnerships with France and the UK in joint East Asian military operations.