Reluctant Remilitarisation - by Fabrizio Coticchia & Matteo Dian & Francesco Niccolo Moro

About the Book

How and why the three losers of the Second World War reconsidered their pacifism, embraced a more active military role and transformed their armed forces after the Cold War

Book Synopsis

While armed forces in several countries underwent deep transformations after the end of the Cold War, few, if any, experienced more radical changes than Germany, Italy and Japan. This book explores how these three countries have modified the posture and structure of their militaries over the past three decades. While each country has had to overcome a pacifist constitution, a widespread view - in both elite and public opinion - that war was a taboo and armed forces should be designed to defend and deter against large-scale threats, they have all become more active security providers over recent decades.

Each country, however, has followed a distinct path. This book reconstructs these paths to show how a mixture of external and domestic factors affected the pace and the extent of transformations. The book also identifies critical junctures in such processes: any push to change - it argues - is mediated by the need to come to terms with the cumbersome weight of the past.

Review Quotes

The three empirical chapters are the highlight of the book, combining a wealth of evidence from official documents and parliamentary speeches, to interviews with the protagonists of these reluctant transformations. In doing so, they help us to better understand the historical trajectory of these three countries in relation to their increasing military activism and enduring institutional backstops: two seemingly contradictory impulses, but in reality key components of adaptation.--Giuseppe Spatafora, European Union Institute for Security Studies "The International Spectator"

Reluctant Remilitarization offers a much needed comparative analysis of how the defense policies of Germany, Italy and Japan - three countries with strong anti-militarist traditions - have evolved after the Cold War. Their respective trajectories are marked by continuity and change, shaped by path dependencies and critical junctures, as well as the interplay between external and domestic factors. Shedding light on these processes, the book will be of great value for readers seeking to understand how these three countries have transformed in the turbulent post-Cold War era.-- "Alexandra Sakaki, German Institute for International and Security Affairs"

Because they lost World War II, Germany, Italy and Japan spent much of the Cold War rejecting militarism and doing the minimum necessary to keep the United States happy and the Soviet threat at bay. In this compelling new book, Coticchia, Dian, and Moro demonstrate the essential role of critical junctures in the post-Cold War transformation of military doctrine and force structure in Germany, Italy, and Japan. In each case, the authors paint a careful picture of how international and domestic factors interact in complex and fascinating ways. This book is essential reading for those interested in the challenges facing military modernization efforts in these countries and beyond.-- "Jason W. Davidson, University of Mary Washington"

Coticchia, Dian and Moro convincingly show the complex interplay between international and domestic politics and the path-dependencies created at critical junctures. By taking a comparative approach, the authors shed valuable new light on the transformation of military doctrine and force structure in Germany, Italy, and Japan.-- "Wolfgang Wagner, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam"