Gavan McCormack is emeritus professor at Australian National University in Canberra, author of Client State: Japan in the American Embrace (New York, Verso, 2007, Japanese, Korean and Chinese expanded and revised editions in 2008), and a coordinator of The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus. He has written widely on Okinawa, U.S. military strategy in Asia, and U.S.-Japan relations.

McCormack will discuss the current conflict between Tokyo and Washington over the closure and relocation of the Futenma airbase in Okinawa. This rift comes after the historic 2009 elections that ended a half-century of one-party governance in Japan and brought the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) into office. Will the stand-off over Futenma undermine the DPJ’s overall reform plans and destroy the U.S.-Japan Alliance?