Since the end of WWII, Japan’s constitution has limited its military action to self-defense. However, “Japan’s cabinet has approved a landmark change in security policy, paving the way for its military to fight overseas… a reinterpretation of the law will now allow ‘collective self-defense’—using force to defend allies under attack” (BBC, July 1, 2014). The Japanese President assured “It will be strictly a defensive measure to defend our people.

The Islamic militant group ISIS that recently took over cities in northern Iraq has “declared an Islamic ‘caliphate’ [state] in an area straddling Iraq and Syria” (The Guardian, June 30, 2014). One jihadist commented in a high tech video made to promote ISIS, “This is not the first border we will break, we will break other borders” (ibid.). “Later the fighter pledges that jihadists will free Palestine. ‘We are not here to replace an Arab cahoot with a western cahoot.