A more useful ally: the adoption of cybersecurity into the U.S.–Japan alliance

This study examines the adoption of cybersecurity into the U.S.–Japan alliance between 2000 and 2015. The current literature finds that adoption occurs when alliance members come to conceive of cyber threats as akin to traditional military threats, and stalls if one member does not. However, adoption into the U.S.–Japan alliance occurred even though Japan did not view the cyber threat in these terms. Instead, adoption was driven by three different factors over time: worries by Japan that the U.S. would reduce cooperation in intelligence-sharing; Japan’s hope that by deepening alliance cooperation it could obtain concessions from the U.S.; and a recognition by Japan that, whatever the broader nature of the threat, cyber capabilities could be used in militarized conflict. The implication is that adoption of cybersecurity into an alliance is not monocausal, but can be driven by broader concerns about the alliance as well as by fears of specific threats.