A Study on Role-Based Approach to Bilateral Alliances in Northeast Asia

Abstract

In the IR literature on alliance, focus on multilateral security groupings has generated a tendency to approach alliance system in an aggregate manner, blurring the distinction between a multilateral and bilateral security grouping. Through a critical review of existing alliance theories, this paper attempts to build an analytical framework to understand intra-alliance management within asymmetrical bilateral alliances. Drawing on national security role conception arguments, this paper presents an analytical framework that will help understand dynamics of intra-alliance conflict within bilateral security groupings. As a case study to demonstrate the validity of the framework, U.S.-Japan alliance relations during the Gulf War will be examined in depth.