ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the developments in United States (US)–Japan alliance cooperation under the Abe administration and considers their degree of divergence and radicalism from previous trajectories. It also considers the implications of Abe administration policies for the substantive and increasing degree of US–Japan military cooperation and its impact on the region. The chapter argues that Abe has been intent on setting US–Japan alliance cooperation on a radical path that in many ways is beginning to diverge from the post-war course of the Yoshida Doctrine and this regard can even be termed the "Abe Doctrine". It examines the continuing impediments to the full implementation of the "Abe Doctrine". Abe has embarked on a more radical security direction for Japan, but it will not proceed without hindrances due to domestic anxieties about this dramatic shift, residual concerns over entrapment and abandonment, and alliance tensions with the US.
