Peacekeeping in Japanese security policy: International–domestic contexts interaction 1

This article analyses how peacekeeping became available to Japan as a policy option during the early 1990s and, thereafter, a part of the national security discourse through the international–domestic contexts interaction approach. The international context refers to the nature (culture) of the international environment at a particular period of time defined by the dominant norms that govern inter-state relations. It also highlights the policy options available to states. The domestic context refers to the nature of the leadership within a state that interprets the international norms and incorporates them into the domestic agenda. Japan’s implementation of the peacekeeping policy was a result of the collective security norms that defined the international environment during the early 1990s and the re-emergence of the revisionists within the Japanese political system — a group that embraced the collective security norms and pushed for the peacekeeping policy in the hope of expanding Japanese security policy in the post-Cold War period.