A Tale of Two "Alliances": Internal Threats and Networked Civil Society in Japan-US and South Korea-US Base Politics

Abstract

This article examines what we call internal threats and civil alliances in connection with the two formal security alliances the United States has forged with Japan and South Korea. It investigates the causal link between the rise of internal threats to human and environmental security and the formation of civic alliances. In this process, we demonstrate the salience of networked human and environmental security actors and their articulation of anti-alliance and anti-base discourses. As case studies, the article focuses on the base relocation projects in Japan and South Korea at the heart of the formation of these civil alliances.