The future of the US-ROK and US-Japan Alliances
The future of the US-ROK and US-Japan Alliances
  • Emanuel Pastreich(epastreich@protonmail.com)
  • 승인 2020.08.03 08:00
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Emanuel Pastreich, Candidate for President of the United States(Independent)
Emanuel Pastreich, Candidate for President of the United States(Independent)

 

The recent declaration by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that engagement with China is dead and that cooperation with China has come to an end in just about every field marks a historic shift. We can already see a massive campaign unfolding to promote suspicion about any interaction with China and a call has gone out for so-called “decoupling” for the United States, but also for its traditional partners in Northeast Asia South Korea and Japan.

This campaign must be seen in the context of President Obama’s signing of the bill HR 4310 in 2012 that authorizes the use of propaganda against US citizens, thereby ending the restrictions imposed by the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948. The recent statements of Secretary Pompeo take this propaganda to a new high, and the wave is entirely bipartisan. 

Secretary Pompeo stated,

“If we want to have a free 21st century, the old paradigm of blind engagement with China must be replaced by a strategy to ensure the free world will triumph over this new tyranny (of China).”

Secretary of State Pompeo’s evocation of reductionist Cold War rhetoric clearly marks a shift, granted that it can also be described as the latest stage in a process of confrontation driven by the radical anti-China faction in the United States military and in American politics that backed President Trump in his campaign from early on. The fact that the Democratic Party is incapable of articulating an alternative vision for US-China relations, and that Presidential candidate Joe Biden has even gone as far as to accuse Trump of coddling China as a means to score political points suggests that we are seeing a transformation of American political culture. 

We are in uncharted territory now and the rapid shifts we have seen over the last few weeks, from calls for regime change in Beijing to the dispatch of aircraft carrier groups to the South China Sea with unprecedented and unjustified frequency suggests there is a consensus in Washington D.C. on the political value of the China threat. Extreme xenophobic claims have become the norm. That unfortunate trend has combined with the virtual shutdown of the State Department as a functional institution.  

The mainstream press is nearly universal in its description of a “new Cold War.” I think that the circumstances are profoundly different from the original Cold War and that new elements, such as technological integration and climate change, make such a description deeply misleading.   

Certainly, Pompeo’s comments at the Nixon Library in which he declared, unilaterally, an end to engagement as he ham-fistedly buried five decades of engagement in a shallow grave at precisely the moment that the Artic is melting and releasing catastrophic levels of methane gas, was a shameful moment. I would like to say that we are seeing how “cold wars repeat: first as tragedies and again as farce.” 

Let us come back to where we are right now. No, let me start with who I am right now. I am an American trained at Yale and Harvard as an expert on East Asia. I spent a total of seven years in Japan and a total of almost 14 years in Korea in the course of my life, and I taught Americans about Korean and Japanese history and culture for 14 years of my career.  

The question of what the US-Korea Alliance and the US Japan Alliance mean is in a state of flux today. The confusion as to what the relationship is and what the purpose of the alliance is has become so tenuous and so charged that most in polite company avoid the topic. 

It would be wise for me to avoid the topic too, Yet, I am compelled to take it on head on. The role of the United States in East Asia is a critical question for us today and we must confront the two basic facts.First, if the United States does not play a constructive role and does not engage in an effort to present an inspiring vision for the future, the risk of serious conflict is high and the risk that the United States will completely lose its mandate in Northeast Asia is higher. 

The assumption behind the radical rhetoric of Mike Pompeo is that the United States and its military allies in Northeast Asia, especially the Republic of Korea and Japan, will fall in line behind this new cold war agenda, and the push for an “arc of democracy” –a new term for the military cooperation between Australia, India. South Korea and Japan. These countries are under enormous pressure to fall in line and take a hostile position towards China and to rapidly “decouple” from China in terms of manufacturing, distribution and finance. 

Let me say a word about decoupling from China to make my position clear. The globalization of finance, industrial production and distribution that ties these countries together, and tethers them to China, has not been an unmitigated blessing and we will not go back to that previous paradigm, nor should we. 

The environment has been destroyed, workers horribly exploited and tremendous resources wasted in the pursuit of short-term profit and glorified consumption happiness in the United States, in Asia and around the world. 

But if we need to move back to local production, to organic farming and to healthy communities by decoupling from unaccountable global production and distribution networks, that does not mean a rabid hostility towards China, one-sixth of the population of the Earth and the core of the current global economy. 

No, quite the opposite is required. We need to work more closely with Chinese scholars, policymakers, local government and above all with ordinary citizens. We need connections with China at the level of partnerships between elementary schools in Korea, China, Japan and the United States so that we can learn about each other and cooperate from a young age. We need more consortiums to address global warming and the crisis in the Artic made up of teams from the United States, Korea, Japan and China. We need above all to be creative about how we will work together.

What we can be sure of is that the current radical arguments in Washington D.C. have connection to the long-term interests of the people of South Korea, Japan or the United States. We have tolerated such political rhetoric in the past, but it has lapsed into dangerous territory and if we continue along this road, even if war or climate catastrophe is avoided, the United States role in East Asia will be permanently altered. The United States cannot rally a coalition of the willing against China in the way it tried to do against Iraq in another age. Such an effort is suicidal for the United States, and for humanity, at this critical moment.

The origins of the alliance system 

The US-Japan alliance has its roots in the 1951 U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty which postulated the threat of communism as a reason for the United States to provide security to Japan as it rebuilt its economy. It was linked directly to the Korean War which fundamentally altered the relationship of the United States with China and Russia. The United States and South Korea established their formal Mutual Defense Treaty in 1953, after the Korean War, a treaty which has evolved into a tremendous bureaucracy and produced enormous budgets for weapons systems.

That alliance system took form as part of the ideological fight between the United States and the Soviet Union (but more importantly, within the United States) as the previous consensus on the need for a new international approach to governance, a consensus that formed the backbone of the anti-fascism alliance of the 1930s and the 1940s took a back seat.   

The United States and the Soviet Union worked together as allies against the ruthless fascist push to destroy wide swaths of humanity in the pursuit of profit, both were fighting against an agenda of eugenics that assumed much of humanity had no right to exist.

Getting right the historical and cultural significance of the Korean War, and the US-ROK and US-Japan alliances is essential to making the rapid transition to the next stage of the alliances so they to address emerging threats that are unlike anything encountered in the last 70 years. 

As an American trained as an Asia expert who has spent a career trying to understand Asia, the question of what the United States' role has been, and what is will be, is critical. It is not morally responsible to simply follow directives from politicians who understand nothing of Asia except its financial value to their patrons.

There are numerous examples of Americans, and of American institutions, that have made positive contributions in Korea and in Japan. But those efforts were mixed with other, far less benign, activities.

As the United States turns back to extreme isolationism, as racist and anti-Asian rhetoric spills out from the corporate media, as we see the commitment in the United States to Korea and to Japan increasingly conditional on the sales of weapons, the hyping of a China threat and a North Korea threat, the greatest danger is that American contributions will be buried in a wave of anti-American sentiment. We can already see that wave coming even as the newspapers tell us that it is the China threat we must be concerned with. 

We must also remember that the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was aimed at Chinese, but was later extended to severely limit immigration from Japan and Korea and that it was the result of a broad “Yellow Peril” campaign that made no distinction between the nations of Asia. We can see precisely the same patterns today.

When Mao Zedong made his declaration of the People's Republic of China on October 3, 1949, the United States was pushed by domestic factions to move away from the anti-fascism alliance with the Soviet Union, and the efforts to avoid taking a stand against the Chinese Communist Party. Pro-business groups in the United States campaigned for close affiliation with the British Empire, for the United States to take advantage of the opportunities for power and financial advantage to be gained from accepting the mantle of the decayed London-based global system. The battle against fascism, the battle against eugenics and racism, were drowned out by a cynical campaign of "Who lost China?"

That campaign was designed to remove all sense of complexity about the political and economic situation and to make the United States the bastion for an anti-communist global campaign. It was a tragic choice that was made in Washington D.C. The United Nations was not able to realize its sacred mission as an international organization and the gates were opened for a treacherous form of globalism that would lead the United States in a dangerous direction from the 1990s on.

The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee was formed in 1950 in the United States and set out to destroy thoughtful Americans who tried to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party in any way in the pursuit of peace. Most notable was the attack on the thoughtful and insightful Chinese scholar Owen Lattimore for his promotion of the investigation of the truth. That campaign made cooperation impossible and permanently altered the United States' role in Korea, and in East Asia. The battle against fascism, against colonialism, against racism ―a battle that had been supported by many thoughtful Americans ― was buried. 

Where do we stand today, 70 years later? The United States still has thousands of troops in South Korea and Japan. The Korean Peninsula is still divided. The political establishment in Washington D.C. and in Seoul and Tokyo assumes that somehow the United States must have troops here forever. There is no vision at all for when American troops will go home, or how a peace regime will be established in East Asia and the Korean Peninsula reunited. 

The new “Cold War” 

Although the newspapers tell us of the increasingly close working relationship between the United States, South Korea and Japan, I can tell you as an Asia expert who has worked on Asia issues with the governments of all three countries for the last twenty years, that I do not see that to be the case. There may be bigger budgets for weapons systems, and more articles describing a new Cold War, but on the ground, I see fewer American experts in Seoul and Tokyo (and quarantine had reduced that number even further).

In Washington D.C., where I was until February, I saw a State Department and Department of Defense essentially stripped of people who understand Korea, Japan and China (and it is increasingly difficult for people who know China to get security clearance). I met friends of mine from my last tour in Washington D.C. who know Asia well and who once were regularly briefing the White House. They are not playing any role now. 

Nor is this shift a creation of the Trump administration. The Democratic and Republican Parties have been happy to trash expertise and rely on caricatures and staw men to describe the complex economic and security relationship with Northeast Asia. 

What must the alliances become in the future?

Our only choice as intellectuals, as American diplomats, academics, journalists and lawyers, is for us to openly condemn the racist and reductive efforts to blame the worst of American culture, the decadence and corruption which I watched first-hand paralyze policy on Asia in Washington D.C. last year. 

We need now, not next month, or next administration, a new vision for America's role in Asia, and in the world, that makes a clean break from the destructive habit of promoting conflict, competition, containment and consumption. We can, we must, embrace a vision based on cooperation, coexistence, climate science and cultural exchange.

Part of that transformation must include a return to the original inspiration of the alliance system. The alliances established when the United States recognized for the first time formally Korean independence at the 1941 Moscow Conference and combined forces with Nationalists and Communists in China, and with the Soviet Union, were alliances focused on the battle against fascism. And that meant at the time Fascism at home and abroad, the efforts of small interest groups to use racism, militarism, essentialism and the debasing of science and intellectual discourse as means to achieve complete power. It was true for the Nazi Party as it was for the Ku Klux Klan in the United States in the 1930s. 

We are facing on all fronts a threat from fascism today, in varied new forms. That threat, and not an imagined threat from “communism,” must be the focus of our global alliance as it was before, in Korea, Japan and across Asia. 

The term “alliance” suggests a conflict, a war. That is a danger in that it encourages a state of war in order to preserve the alliance and undermines peace. But at the same time, we are in such a perilous state now, one in which totalitarianism and fascism are creeping into every airport, every convenience store and on to every TV broadcast globally. Such a campaign is demanded up us again. 

But it is an open distortion to suggest that it is China that poses the threat. China is wrestling with exactly the same demons that we are wrestling with today in Washington D.C., Seoul and Tokyo. All these capitals are dominated by the power of investment banks, the super-rich, and the ruthless supercomputers that work day and night to exploit our precious Earth for short-term profits. 

We will promote cooperation between Koreans, Japanese and Americans to respond to the true security challenges of the 21st century. The development of nuclear weapons by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not anywhere near the top of that list and the question of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula cannot be solved until the United States itself completely commits itself to the principles of the Nonproliferation Treaty and sets out a plan for the United States to quickly get rid of all the nuclear weapons that remain in our country.

There will be a struggle, but it must be one that is inspiring, based on the pursuit of a scientific approach to policy, and that brings back the best of the American traditions of internationalism dormant since the 1950s.  

I cannot support Donald Trump's rhetoric, especially the racist message of "Make American Great Again." But I will say that, with the help of all citizens of Korea, of Japan, of Northeast Asia and of our precious Earth, we can work together to give hope again to the discouraged and the oppressed. In that process, I believe, we can take the first steps towards making America great for the first time.

Responding to the overwhelming threat of the four horsemen of the apocalypse

Peace and security in Northeast Asia are not limited to discussions between high-ranking diplomats and politicians. Americans should work with all thoughtful, brave and peace-loving Koreans and Japanese, and all others who will join with us.

Security will be a critical part of that project. But we will have to redefine security. Security must be a global response to the four horsemen of the apocalypse. 

Who are the four horsemen of the apocalypse? 

Well, at this point, the term "apocalypse" is no longer hyperbole. The apocalypse is no longer for fundamentalists anymore. "Halleluiah! I believe!"
The first horseman of the apocalypse is the collapse of the climate, the death of the oceans, the spread of deserts and horrific destruction of biodiversity brought on by the thoughtless pursuit of consumption and growing economy.

The second horseman of the apocalypse is the radical concentration of wealth in the hands of a few billionaires who plot now to control finance and currency completely through their supercomputer networks and to create a human-free economy for their own profit and amusement.

The third horseman of the apocalypse is the rapid evolution of technology that is rendering humans as passive animals that have lost all agency and are incapable of meaningful political action. This transformation is pushed forward by the promotion of artificial intelligence and automation in a cynical effort to dumb down citizens through the promotion of consumption.

The fourth horseman of the apocalypse is the extreme militarization of the economy, often out of sight for citizens, which has set off an unlimited global arms race on land, on the oceans, and now even in space that could easily be the end of humanity.

These horrific developments must be the focus of an international effort to create a sustainable future for our children and that effort must be at the center of any cooperation between the United States, Korea and Japan. To put it more sharply, if cooperation with Korea is not directly related to a concrete and immediate response to those four horsemen of the apocalypse, then that cooperation should stop. We do not have the funds, the manpower, or the time to pursue projects that are unrelated to the central imperative of saving humanity.

An American vision for Northeast Asia 

The United States must play a leadership role. That does not mean praying before the false idols of war propped up by Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton, insisting that the only thing that matters is weapons systems, free trade agreements and more weapons systems. 

We must put forth a vision for the future of Northeast Asia and of the world that is about global governance with a focus on the Earth and on local governance. True science, education, ethics and new models for participatory democracy must inform this vision for the United States, at home and abroad. 

I will close by suggesting that cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States can be directed to a successful path forward towards the unification of the Korean Peninsula. This unification project offers us a tremendous opportunity, one that comes only once in 500 years, an opportunity for us to lay the foundations for a nation that will engage in critical innovations and will not only offer inspiration for its citizens, but a new hope for all citizens on Earth.

Koreans, North and South, can create new institutions on a massive scale that cannot be easily done in other nations precisely because Korea is in the midst of institutional transformation. Korea can end the use of fossil fuels, create finance that is focused on citizens, not international investment banks and pursue an honest and brave internationalism that brings us together for true cooperation.

The frugal and modest lives of North Korean are not something that must be quickly replaced by mindless consumption or thoughtless development. If anything, North Korea is perfectly positioned to be a nation that is 100 percent fossil-fuel-free. North Korea can take the brave position that the minerals and the coal beneath its forests and fields shall remain there, untouched by multinational corporations because the people, and the ecosystem, are far more valuable than money.

That model can be imported back into South Korea, Japan and the United States. The fact that North Korea does not have many automobiles, that it is not automated, can be its strength, not its weakness. I look forward to a day when South Korea, Japan and the United States are as dark at night as North Korea is. 

Japanese and Americans can help in that project for North Korea, and for a healthy and sustainable Northeast Asia. But American and Japanese investment banks and wealthy speculators should not play any role whatsoever. 

Let us go forward together, with bravery, ready for self-sacrifice, ready to do our best to end this consumption-driven extraction economy, to address the peril of climate change and to create a culture for cooperation in education, true science, the arts and moral philosophy, one that will bring the United States, South Korea and Japan together as a true team dedicated to internationalism via people and ideals, not supercomputers calculating profits. 


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