Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama has moved passed stalled negotiations by agreeing with an American base proposal. Though the decision is the first progress toward a resolution that the base dispute has seen, it has opened up new fights with Okinawan residents and some members of Hatoyama’s government. The Wall Street Journal’s Tokyo Bureau Chief Jacob Shlesinger discusses the fate of the base and of Hatoyama’s leadership.
Greece’s financial crisis, and its accompanying social protests and violence, has sent shockwaves across the world. Although the crisis is generally viewed as an economic and sovereign debt issue, its larger significance may ultimately lie within the geopolitical realm. As leaders in virtually every developed country, including the United States, are beginning to realize, they, too, will sooner or later face the same sort of fiscal challenges now confronting Athens. Eventually, this growing debt awareness will put pressure on defense budgets and, ultimately, on alliance structures. Specifically, what’s at stake is a global security architecture established by the United States […]