UK-Japan strategic convergence post-brexit? : the roles of maritime security, defence engagement and military exercises

The UK and Japan are increasingly talking the language of strategic convergence and security cooperation and saying that this will be manifested through maritime security and naval defence diplomacy. This policy brief assesses the motivations behind this thinking, how to conceptualise the respective approaches of the UK and Japan to defence diplomacy, and therefore the possibility of more substantive maritime cooperation. It argues that the two states are indeed converging, with perhaps the UK moving further towards serving Japan’s model of defence diplomacy and security interests. At the same time, a number of potential obstacles to moving from rhetoric to action in strategic and maritime cooperation are presented