Soviet Policy Towards Japan : An Analysis of Trends in the 1970s and 1980s

Dr Robertson provides a comprehensive analysis of a vital but often neglected contemporary relationship, and suggests that portrayals of basic Soviet-Japanese antipathy may be overplayed, largely as a result of excessive concentration upon a few specific past episodes.

This study of the development of Soviet policy towards Japan during the 1970s and 1980s inaugurated the major series Cambridge Studies in International Relations. Dr Robertson provides a comprehensive analysis of a vital but often neglected contemporary relationship, and suggests that portrayals of basic Soviet-Japanese antipathy may be overplayed, largely as a result of excessive concentration upon a few specific past episodes. The work is divided into four parts, dealing in turn with ideological issues, economic and trading relations, the military and strategic situation, and finally the global political significance of the relationship, as reflected by Soviet perceptions of Chinese-Japanese and American-Japanese relations. In conclusion Dr Robertson assesses whether a distinct Soviet 'policy' towards Japan can be discerned, and examines the position at the end of the 1980s. A short appendix covers the troubled question of fishing and the effects of Japanese exclusion from Soviet fishing grounds.