Description:
While armed forces in several countries underwent deep transformations after the end of the Cold War, few, if any, experienced more radical changes than Germany, Italy and Japan. This book explores how these three countries have modified the posture and structure of their militaries over the past three decades. While each country has had to overcome a pacifist constitution, a widespread view - in both elite and public opinion - that war was a taboo and armed forces should be designed to defend and deter against large-scale threats, they have all become more active security providers over recent decades.
Each country, however, has followed a distinct path. This book reconstructs these paths to show how a mixture of external and domestic factors affected the pace and the extent of transformations. The book also identifies critical junctures in such processes: any push to change - it argues - is mediated by the need to come to terms with the cumbersome weight of the past.Brief description: Fabrizio Coticchia is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political and International Sciences at the University of Genoa, Italy.
Review Quotes: Reluctant Remilitarization offers a much needed comparative analysis of how the defense policies of Germany, Italy and Japan - three countries with strong anti-militarist traditions - have evolved after the Cold War. Their respective trajectories are marked by continuity and change, shaped by path dependencies and critical junctures, as well as the interplay between external and domestic factors. Shedding light on these processes, the book will be of great value for readers seeking to understand how these three countries have transformed in the turbulent post-Cold War era.-- "Alexandra Sakaki, German Institute for International and Security Affairs"