Troubled Partnership: History of US-Japan Collaboration on the FS-X Fighter (Rand Studies Published With Transaction) - Softcover

9781560008910: Troubled Partnership: History of US-Japan Collaboration on the FS-X Fighter (Rand Studies Published With Transaction)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560008911 ISBN 13: 9781560008910

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

During World War II, Japanese fighters, such as the famed Zero, were among the most respected and feared combat aircraft in the world. But for decades following the defeat of Japan in 1945, a variety of political and economic factors prevented Japan from developing its own modern national fighter.

This changed in the 1980s. Japan began independently developing its first world-class fighter since World War II. After several years of contentious negotiations, the Japanese agreed to work with the United States to cooperatively develop a minimally modified F-16, the FS-X. The new fighter, however, has evolved into a world-class aircraft developed largely by Japanese industry primarily due to errors committed by the U.S. side. By the fall of 1995, fifty years after the end of World War II, the Zero for the 1990s will have made its first flight, catapulting Japan into the elite ranks of nations capable of developing the most advanced weapon systems.

In Troubled Partnership, Mark Lorell traces the evolution of the FS-X, disclosing the conflicting economic and security objectives advanced by U.S. officials, the flawed U.S. policy of technology reciprocity, and the challenges of international collaboration. Its deep intimacy with the interplay of policy and economy will make this volume of intense interest to political scientists, military studies specialists, historians, and government officials.

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About the Author:

Mark Lorell is a senior analyst at RAND in the International Policy Department. He is the author of numerous works on aerospace collaboration and foreign research and development policies.

Review:

"This is an exhaustive study of efforts by the U.S. and Japan to produce a new generation of fighter aircraft. . . . [T]his is an excellent study of the use of gaiatsu (foreign pressure) by the United States to influence Japanese defense policies. . . . This study will undoubtedly have considerable appeal to specialists in areas of defense planning and development. It will also be interesting to those who wish to more fully understand the difficulties of collaboration between two countries."

—L. Jerold Adams, Perspectives on Political Science

"Mark Lorell does an admirable job of using primary source material, interviews, and periodicals to accurately portray events and their relevance. . . . Troubled Partnership should be on the reading list for every policy maker and action officer."

—Maj Raymond L. Laffoon Jr., Airpower Journal

"Troubled Partnership is well-written, exhaustively researched, and comprehensively documented and goes far beyond anything previously published on the subject. This book will greatly help to inform the debate about future collaborative military research and development projects with Japan, but it has a potentially much broader readership among people interested in technology and U.S. industrial competitiveness."

—Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man and Trust

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