Harness the Rising Sun: An American Strategy for Managing Japan's Rise as a Global Power

by Joseph S. Nye Jr. (Editor), Susan J. Pharr (Contributor), Haruo Shimada (Contributor)

Japan is one of the United States' most important allies, yet relations between the two risk degenerating into serious conflicts over trade and other issues. This book outlines a new vision for U.S.-Japan relations that enables both countries to cooperate to achieve their mutual interests, while minimizing the conflicts that will inevitably arise between them. The new U.S.-Japan strategy must incorporate four critical elements. First, the strategy must be based upon a clear conception of U.S. national interest but be implemented in ways that capitalize on the mutual interests of both countries. Second, the strategy must integrate economic and security interests, which the United States decoupled during the cold war era. Third, a new U.S. strategy toward Japan must have an institutional expression, both domestically and internationally, if it is to be viable over the long term. Finally, the United States' Japan strategy must be part of a new global strategy for facing the challenges of the new world order. Contributors: Susan J. Pharr, Haruo Shimada, Clyde V. Prestowitz, Jr., C. Fred Bergsten, Paula Stern, Daniel I. Okimoto, and James H. Raphael. Co-published with the Aspen Strategy Group.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1993

About the author

Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. was an American political scientist. He and Robert Keohane co-founded the international relations theory of neoliberalism, which they developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence. They also explored transnational relations and world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he pioneered the theory of soft power. His notion of "smart power" ("the ability to combine hard and soft power into a successful strategy") became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the Clinton Administration and the Obama Administration. These theories from Nye are very commonly seen in courses across the U.S., such as I.B. D.P. Global Politics.
Nye was the Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he later held the position of University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus. In October 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry appointed Nye to the Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He was also a member of the Defense Policy Board. He was a Harvard faculty member since 1964. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a foreign fellow of the British Academy, and a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.
The 2011 Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey of over 1,700 international relations scholars ranked Nye as the sixth most influential scholar in the field of international relations in the past 20 years. He was also ranked as one of the most influential figures in American foreign policy. In 2011, Foreign Policy magazine included him on its list of top global thinkers. In September 2014, Foreign Policy reported that international relations scholars and policymakers ranked Nye as one of the field's most influential scholars.