Camp David and the 'Military-First' Approach to Asia

A trilateral relationship focused mainly or solely on closer military cooperation could stoke regional tensions and contribute to instability.

Max Boot and Sue Mi Terry applaud Biden for today’s Camp David summit:

Such a summit would have been unthinkable only two years ago. The primary acclaim must go to the courageous leader of South Korea and the pragmatic leader of Japan for moving beyond historical grievances. But the Biden administration also deserves considerable credit for enabling this rapprochement.

The reason that the summit would have been unthinkable such a short time ago is that the two nations have not really moved beyond those grievances. The only thing that has changed is that there has been a change in leadership in South Korea and the new leader wants to cozy up to Japan, but that isn’t happening because the people are demanding it or welcoming it. The “courageous” leader chose to ignore the decision of his country’s supreme court after it ruled in 2018 that Japanese companies should compensate the victims of their wartime abuses, and I suspect most of his countrymen see this as shameful rather than courageous. Yoon has taken a politically risky path, and it seems likely to blow up in his face.

To the extent that a closer trilateral relationship depends on South Korea sacrificing its interests to satisfy one or both of the other partners, it will be unstable and prone to disintegration.