NAGOYA/LONDON -- The UK-Japan 21st Century Group, set up two decades ago by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, has been mulling over the foreign-policy dilemmas of the two countries at their annual get-together.
At first sight, these appear to have considerable symmetry. The two nations both now appear to face a giant strategic quandary about which way to go. In the British case, the choice is said to be between Europe and America; in the Japanese case, between China and America.
Deeper reflection suggests that things are not so simple, and that this is not really the choice at all. The antithesis in both cases is false.