Geopolitical stresses in the Indo-Pacific are increasing and intensifying. These stresses derive from China's more assertive regional behaviour; growing alignments between China and Russia on the one hand and Russia and North Korea on the other; and most recently from the apparent recalibration of United States foreign policy under the second Trump administration. They have magnified Japan's significance as a strategic actor both in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

As such, it is of global importance whether Japan can meet the grand-strategic goals that it established in its 2022 National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program. This Adelphi book evaluates Japan's new grand strategy, considering whether it and associated reforms are sufficiently robust to fulfil Japan's goal of ensuring its security even in the scenario of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

Robert Ward is the IISS Japan Chair, carrying out independent research and writing extensively on strategic issues related to Japan, including its contemporary security and foreign policies. He is also Director of Geo-economics and Strategy and leads the Institute's work on a range of issues including global economic governance, rules and standards setting, and how economic coercion impacts policy at a national and corporate level. He is co-author of Japan's Effectiveness as a Geo-Economic Actor: Navigating Great-Power Competition (Routledge, 2022) and co-editor of Japan and the IISS: Connecting Western and Japanese Strategic Thought from the Cold War to the War on Ukraine (Routledge, 2023). Prior to joining the IISS, Ward spent 23 years at the Economist Group, latterly leading the country and industry research teams at the Economist Intelligence Unit. He lived and worked in Japan from 1989 to 1996 and is a fluent speaker of Japanese. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Cambridge University.