Actually read the article, not much to see here. Basically just some lofty prose on a Japanese defense strategy document but without much in the way of insight into anything going into the geopolitical situation.

Also, the extremely forced looking diagram at the top has literally nothing to do with their thesis other than being low hanging fruit for a counterargument.

Edit: I was curious, here's a larger version of the map: https://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/577812/8159481/128200...

It makes less sense the longer you look at it...shrug.