Rethinking the San Francisco System in Indo-Pacific Security

“This clear, coherent, and engaging volume offers important insights into the historical legacy, contemporary importance, and future salience of the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1951. It provides a wealth of novel assessments on key issues that continue to shape the contours of the regional security order.”

– Bart Gaens, Leading Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor, University of Helsinki

“The historic 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty set the course for Japan’s postwar politics and foreign policy for decades to follow. Yoneyuki Sugita and Victor Teo have ably put together a collection of thirteen excellent chapters covering wide-ranging topics that examine the continuing impact of that treaty signed seventy years ago. For anyone interested in Japan’s society, politics and foreign policy, this volume is highly recommended.”

–Purnendra Jain, Emeritus Professor Japanese Studies, The University of Adelaide

This remarkable collection commemorates the 70th anniversary of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Conference by revisiting the important legacies of both the Peace Treaty and the US-Japan Security Treaty have had on the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific. Drawing on multiple perspectives, the volume conveys the hopes and fears that the authors have for the domestic and international politics of the region. In a post Trumpian world marked by the US-China tensions amidst a raging pandemic, the region’s continued prosperity looks exceedingly grim.

Yoneyuki Sugita is professor at Kobe Women’s Junior College. He received his Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. His major works include Japan's Shifting Status in the World and the Development of Japan's Health Insurance Systems (Springer, 2019) and, Pitfall or Panacea: The Irony of US Power in Occupied Japan 1945-1952 (Routledge, 2003).

Victor Teo is Research Fellow associated with the Beyond Cold War Project based at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Research of Arts Social Sciences and Humanities. His latest publication is Japan’s Arduous Rejuvenation as a Global Power: Democratic Resilience and the US-China Challenge (Palgrave Macmillan 2019).