ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 provides an IR literature review on the US‒Japan alliance, which has been predominantly analysed from realist, liberal and constructivist viewpoints. While existing theories of alliances are reviewed in a subsequent chapter, this book argues that the neorealist understanding of alliances cannot explain their durability, specifically in the post-Cold War period. This section will explain why the neo-Gramscian framework can be more useful in explaining alliance sustainability as well as the sustainability of hegemony. This chapter will also explain how this theoretical framework will be applied as the research method on which this book is based.
