Between Strategic Vision and Restraint: Poland as a Test Case for Japan’s Global Security Engagement
Between Strategic Vision and Restraint: Poland as a Test Case for Japan’s Global Security Engagement

Summary/Abstract: This article uses Poland as a focal point to examine Japan’s strategic restraint regarding global security diplomacy. While Poland and Japan are both democratic nations, have similar assessments of threats to their national security, and the security nexus between Warsaw and Tokyo is expanding, there is strategic restraint for Japan to act beyond the Indo-Pacific. Japan’s foreign policy is regionally constrained by global challenges stemming from constitutional pacifism, institutional fragmentation, and an overwhelmingly socially constructed normative identity as a civilian power. Using a structural evaluation and a recap of deeds and omissions, this article argues that Japan’s restraint comes not from a place of strategy but from structure. Therefore, through the bilateral relationship with Japan and Poland, the challenge for Poland is the challenge for Japan. Ultimately, to render Japan an ideal actor for the international community’s goals of other partners, an overhaul of the internal structural support rendering strategic restraint is required – for only then will Japan extend its boundaries, and for now, other partners should not expect any specific yield from extended policies but instead, engage in diplomatic entrepreneurship.

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