Rearming Democracy: Japan's Defence Buildup Program and the European Union's ReArm Europe Plan

ABSTRACT The paper looks a critical look at the parallel defence buildup plans of Japan (Defence Buildup Program/DBP) and the EU (ReArm 2030 ). The paper highlights how both allowed regional competitors to initiate negative shifts in relative power that undermine the security of both. In response, both Japan and the EU adopted a similar response of defence industrial expansion and enhancing long‐range, autonomous warfare capabilities, responding the economic and political realities of their respective societies. The paper also highlights the foreseeable difficulties in financing these plans in the long term, as well as the potential weaknesses introduced by post‐heroic, anti‐militarist attitudes in both Japan and the EU.