Let's Through Japan in the Mix (North Korea)

Libertarian minded CATO Institute has thoughts of action on North Korea as well:

Tightening U.S.-Japan Relationship

"Any North Korean missile launch would push Japan even closer to the United States as the officially pacifist nation tries to protect itself against self-declared nuclear power Pyongyang, analysts said," Agence France-Presse reports. "Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said Japan and the United States would take 'severe action' if the communist North goes ahead with reported plans to fire a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile".

In the Policy Analysis "Two Normal Countries: Rethinking the U.S.-Japan Strategic Relationship" Christopher Preble, director of Cato's foreign policy studies, writes: "The U.S.-Japan strategic relationship, formalized during the depths of the Cold War and refined during the 1980s and 1990s, continues to undergo dramatic changes. Although Japan is economically capable and now seems politically motivated to assume full responsibility for defending itself from threats, it is legally constrained from doing so under the terms of the Japanese constitution, particularly Article 9. The path to defensive self-sufficiency is also impeded by Japan's continuing dependence on the United States embodied in the U.S.-Japan security alliance.

"With the United States struggling to meet military commitments abroad, and with Japan increasingly asserting military autonomy, American policymakers must shape a new policy that will more equitably distribute security burdens between the two countries. Three recent instances in which the United States and Japan have worked together on matters of mutual interest -- Iraq, Taiwan, and North Korea -- offer useful clues as to how a cooperative strategic relationship might operate in the future."

CATO is implying contradictory messages: 1) Japan needs to assert a greater share in counter-acting the belligerence of North Korea (and the reassertion of China for that matter). 2) Continue to look for diplomatic solutions to nuclear threats

I think the former is a call to take more responsible for the defense of their land which is consistent with Libertarian thinking. The later is a call to exert unified multilateral pressure on the likes of North Korea (and China).

The former is certainly viable. The later is already a proven failure.

It is fascinating to think on this. ASIA's politics is beginning to affect geo-political alignments globally. America is flirting with India as a counter weight to China and Islamofascism. Many are beginning to call for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to pull some of their own weight militarily. It is all ASIA.