US strategic retrenchment and security-seeking behaviors of the US allies in Northeast Asia

This research is planned to explore how a regional state could improve its security during the time of its patron’s strategic retrenchment. It introduces a theory of a regional state’s security-promoting behaviors during the time of its patron’s retrenchment. According to this theory, it is hypothesized that there is covariation between the level of a regional state’s security concern and the scope of its domestic drives to increase societal contribution to autonomous defense posture. It also hypothesizes the existence of covariation between the level of a regional state’s security concern and the level of its commitment to the pursuit of a military policy against its patron’s strategic interests. Empirical findings from the case study of the security-seeking behaviors of the US allies in Northeast Asia support the two research hypotheses. A reader may want to test the validity of the theory against another context of a superpower’s strategic retrenchment