The book offers an exploration and analysis of the ideational motives which drove the
establishment of the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD) a milestone defense framework that
was concluded between Japan Australia and the United States in March 2006. Among realists the
TSD was quickly identified as power-balancing of the three countries to counter a rising China.
However non-material reasons to establish a common forum for security cooperation are evident.
Not only are the three allies democracies but Japan and especially Australia look back on
decade-old alliances with the United States. Utilizing a constructivist approach the author
argues that the establishment of the TSD can be accounted for by a strongly perceived
collective identity between the leaders of the three countries constituted by shared norms and
democratic values. The book sheds light on the normative drivers of the process and assesses
the impact of values by which the leaders of Japan Australia and the United States mutually
connected. It explains the normative mechanisms which led to a security relationship that would
grow to unprecedented levels of intimacy. The book highlights the goals and objectives of the
Trilateral Strategic Dialogue and further explains why South Korea a democracy and ally of
the United States is not added to the framework. Moreover the book outlines the role of the
Trilateral Strategic Dialogue as one step in the greater strategy of the three governments to
establish a community of democratic states in the Asia-Pacific.
