As we approach what is often called the Age of the Pacific one fact is clearly before us: The next century will see the United States and Japan standing together at the dynamic center of a new global economic structure. Together, along with the other advanced nations, we will share-even more than we do today-Bearing the responsibility for shaping much of the world's economic structure is not new to the United States; it is what the Marshall Plan and much post-World War II U.S. history is all about. But sharing this responsibility is new, and here we have the challenge. The author insists we must learn to see things in new ways, to understand the nature of America’s interdependence with Japan, and to reconceive the national interest in light of what we understand of this relationship.

Paul Gordon Lauren is Regents Professor at the University of Montana.