On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declared "a new golden age" on the horizon for the US-Japan alliance. Japan was the second stop for the US president on a tour of Asia that is set to culminate on Thursday in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea.
Even before President Trump returned to the White House earlier this year, conversations with diplomatic and security officials across Europe and Asia revealed a deep contradiction. On the one hand, U.S. allies fear the breakdown of the international order that has underpinned their stability in recent decades. On the other, they are hesitant to invest in the structural changes needed to adapt to a more uncertain world.