AbstractsPolitical Science

The Russo-Japanese Energy Cooperation serves as the foundation of the growing convergence of strategic interests between Russia and Japan. Based on this foundation the two countries have expanded the mutual cooperation areas from economic to security as the second Abe administration and the Putin regime moved closer to strengthen the bilateral tie. Given the outbreak of the Ukraine Crisis Russo-Japanese relations once again come to a crossroad of subordinated to the U.S. strategic restraints or keeping its own pace of reconciliation. The persistence in pursuing a dynamic bilateral contacts and the reservation in being fully affiliated to the U.S. hegemony have made the current Abe-Putin rapprochement different from their predecessors who were restrained by the internal and external factors resulted from the dominance of the U.S. in their respective strategic planning. The postwar Russo-Japanese relation was restrained by the Kurile Islands Dispute, Cold War structure and the mismanagement of the bilateral relationship, among which the United States is the key factor of a stalemated Russo-Japanese relation. Since 1951 when the U.S. replaced the Yalta agreement with the San Francisco Peace Treaty as the final arrangement of the postwar structure the Kurile Islands Dispute has become the main obstacle of Russo-Japanese relation. By creating ambiguity in international laws, deterring USSR with U.S. forces in Japan and utilizing Japanâs wish for an early-end U.S. occupation Washington successfully obstructed the normalization of Soviet-Japanese relation. The 1960 Mutual Security Treaty further promoted the strategic value of the disputed islands and made the development of the bilateral relation more difficult. Despite the proposals of âSeikei Bunriâ and âTwo-Islands Firstâ the fundamental change is still inaccessible. Until today the 70th anniversary of the end of WW2 the territorial dispute remains and the peace treaty is still in a distant future. Nevertheless since 2012 the second term of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin have demonstrated a new pragmatic approach consisted with deepening the energy cooperation, persistent sates heads meetings and the attempt to open up bilateral security dialogue. All the efforts would distinguish the âAbe-Putin Modelâ from all the past Russo-Japanese rapprochements despite the sourness brought by the U.S.-led sanctions against Russia. Being the independent variable of Soviet/Russo-Japanese relation the U.S. holds the strategic initiative in creating, maintaining and complicating the bilateral tie by using the Kurile Islands Dispute, the Soviet/Russo-U.S. frictions and the U.S.-Japan Alliance as policy tools to penetrate the attempts of Soviet/Russo-Japanese rapprochements. This article analyses the way the U.S. upholds the initiative in the development of Soviet/Russo-Japanese relation throughout different decisive historical junctures and discussed the uniqueness of the ongoing âAbe-Putin Modelâ and its implications to the U.S. hegemony in… Advisors/Committee Members: Ming Shang Wu (chair), Yujen Kuo (committee member), Wencheng Lin (chair).