ABSTRACT
The fluidity of the post-Cold War order, including the impending Asian Century embodied by the rise of China, once more required a clarification of Japan's position in the world civilizational hierarchy. The mobile nature of the ballistic missile defence system's naval platforms and the amalgamation of Japanese and US defence postures vis-à-vis China contribute to the production of danger and the consequent reinscription of the civilizational boundary across the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. The lack of civilizational geopolitics beyond the Korean Peninsula is also reflected in the marginal appearance of sea lines of communication security arguments in the writings of academics and think tank analysts. The mutually produced civilizational boundary between East and West also manifests itself in the form of divergent Chinese and US interpretations of the international law of the sea.
