Research Proposal

Today, the position of Japan as a contributor to World peace is questioned. Whether Japan should dispatch Self Defense Force to Iraq is a conventional issue. This paper examines the SDF dispatch to Iraq from the two perspectives of national interests and World peace. Japan should emphasize realism over ideals, and deploy SDF to Iraq to support US and UN activities by the Anti-terrorism Special Measures Law that supposedly will be passed in the Diet at the beginning of the next year. “Japan’s security change” looks at foreign threats as an important factor promoting Japan to have cooperative attitude towards USA and maintain the US-Japan Security Treaty. “Japan’s security agenda” explores the negative influences on World peace of stretching the interpretation of Article 9 and indirectly participation in the war on terrorism.