Broader civilizational forces, not specific disputes, drove U.S. conflict with both Japan and China

Evidence

In the course of a decade American relations thus “deteriorated” with both Japan and China. This shift in Asian-American relations was so broad and encompassed so many different issue areas that it seems unlikely that its causes can be found in individual conflicts of interest over auto parts, camera sales, or military bases, on the one hand, or dissident jailings, weapons transfers, or intellectual piracy, on the other. In addition, it was clearly against American national interest to allow its relations simultaneously to become more conflictual with both major Asian powers. The elementary rules of diplomacy and power politics dictate that the United States should attempt to play one off against the other or at least to sweeten relations with one if they were becoming more conflictual with the other. Yet this did not happen. Broader factors were at work promoting conflict in Asian-American relations and making it more difficult to resolve the individual issues that came up in those relations. This general phenomenon had general causes. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 602

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s institutional economics point that general systemic causes, not individual disputes, reshape trading relationships.