"History and Politics of the Taiwan Clause: U.S.-China Competition over Japan and its Link to Taiwan's Defense" - by CWP alum Ayumi Teraoka

This article examines the origins and survival of the 1969 “Taiwan Clause” in the Sato-Nixon Joint Communiqué. The clause was the first explicit signal by the Japanese government that it would give U.S. military forces access to bases in Japan for contingencies involving Taiwan. Despite later attempts by Tokyo to downgrade the clause, it endured amid U.S.-China rapprochement and shifting regional dynamics. Drawing on newly uncovered Japanese and U.S. archival materials, the article shows that Japan's position toward the clause was shaped by the extent to which Washington and Beijing accommodated Japan's domestic political concerns. Unilateral pressures from either side often backfired, whereas coordinated diplomacy between U.S. and Japanese officials helped preserve the clause despite growing nationalist sentiment within Japan. By reassessing Japan's ambivalence toward the Taiwan linkage, the article contributes to broader debates on alliance management and triangular diplomacy during the Cold War—issues that remain highly relevant amid renewed tensions in the Taiwan Strait today.

Journal of Cold War Studies (2026) 28 (4): 42–78.

Ayumi Teraoka is Assistant Professor of Politics at Brandeis University. She studies alliance politics and security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Her forthcoming book examines the history of U.S. alliance management in Asia from the 1960s to the present, illuminating the conditions under which the United States successfully negotiated geopolitically contested issues with allies, including air defense integration and the defense of Taiwan, in the face of China's opposition. Her research has been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the America in the World Consortium, among others. Before joining Brandeis, she held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Texas at Austin (2022-2023) and Columbia University (2023-2025), where she taught Japanese Foreign Policy for Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She also previously held research positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Security Studies from Princeton University, an M.A. in Asian Studies from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in Law from Keio University.

Photo Credit: https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/issue
 By Bob Moore - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120006784