For many Americans, especially in the Trump era, alliances are increasingly judged by one question: What does America get out of them?
That is a fair question. The answer is that the alliances with South Korea and Japan are not acts of generosity. They are among the most cost-effective strategic investments the United States has anywhere in the world.
The old language of “shared values” and “historic friendship” still matters, but it is no longer enough. If Seoul and Tokyo want to remain central to Washington’s strategy, they must frame the alliance not as something America should preserve for moral reasons, but as something that directly serves American interests.
South Korea and Japan are not simply beneficiaries of American protection. They are forward operating platforms for American power in the Indo-Pacific.
Without Japan, the United States would struggle to sustain naval and air operations across the Western Pacific. American bases in Japan allow rapid access to the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula. Without South Korea, the United States would face far greater difficulty deterring North Korea, monitoring Chinese activity and maintaining a credible military presence near the Asian mainland.
The blunt reality is this: If the United States withdraws from Korea and Japan, China would gain strategic space almost immediately.
That is why even an “America First” administration cannot simply walk away from Asia. The Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy makes clear that the central challenge for the United States is China, particularly around Taiwan and the First Island Chain. Washington may expect allies to carry more of the burden, but that is not the same as abandoning them.
In fact, the alliance argument becomes stronger under an “America First” framework.
Washington is no longer interested in alliances where America pays, America fights, and allies simply watch. It wants allies that spend more, build more, produce more and contribute more. Japan has already moved in that direction with higher defense budgets, counterstrike capabilities and stronger defense industrial cooperation. South Korea has become one of the world’s major arms exporters and has developed major strengths in shipbuilding, missile defense, semiconductors and munitions production.
Japan and South Korea help America in areas where the United States itself is struggling. America has a shrinking defense industrial base, shortages in shipbuilding capacity and increasing concerns about semiconductor supply chains. South Korea and Japan can help solve those problems.
Source: Korea Times News
