Foreign policy should always be about what’s in your national interest. Strategic treaties should be entered into with the idea that both sides gain some benefit, but the benefits might be different to both sides. We might make a mutual defense treaty with a country and the other country thinks they are gaining the protection of the United States, while our goal is to control the other countries potential belligerence or merely to expand our global reach.
When all is well, everyone is happy and the treaties never get tested. When things get “testy” we learn that both sides had very different ideas about what the mutual defense really means. When you have a country like the US that makes lots of treaties, we sometimes have to make hard decisions that upset our partners. The North Korea conflict right now is stressing our treaty relations.
Obviously we have treaties with South Korea and Japan. In responding to threats from North Korea, we can’t just negotiate with North Korea without dealing with our treaties with South Korea and Japan. In the defense of South Korea and Japan what happens if we can’t defend them both?
Japan is starting to have serious discussions about whether they can depend on the US, or do they need their own independent capability. While many in the US might say that this is a good thing, we need to understand politics in Asia. Most Americans don’t realize that in the run up to WWII, Japan occupied EVERY country in Asia except one (Thailand). Polls throughout Asia consistently show that Asians welcome the US military in Asian as a counterpoint to Japan! Asians have longer memories than Americans.. Read more here.