Are Shared Values Valuable? Liberal Democracy and Human Rights among AUKUS and its Future Membership

Abstract

Do shared values make a military partnership attractive to potential member countries and strengthen perceptions of that partnership's deterrent effects? While military cooperation attracts potential members through strategic benefits such as military capabilities, recent security cooperation initiatives like AUKUS emphasize liberal democratic values and human rights as their core values. This study focuses on Japan as a potential member of AUKUS in the Indo-Pacific region and explores how the Japanese public evaluates Japan's future participation in AUKUS and the agreement's anticipated deterrence effects. The results indicate that emphasizing liberal democratic values does not boost support for AUKUS or reinforce a belief in the agreement's ability to deter potential enemies. However, the findings highlight the connection between support for security cooperation and the expansion of membership, irrespective of regime types. In particular, the domestic audience exhibits selective attitudes towards South Korea, a democratic government that should be an important candidate for partnership. These findings suggest a cynical view among third-party audiences regarding the efficacy of shared values in security cooperation, as well as a double standard among the Japanese in shaping new security cooperation in the region.