Title: “Days of Future Past? UK Defence in the Indo-Pacific after Brexit”
Speaker: Dr. Alessio Patalano, Reader in East Asian Warfare & Security at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London
Date: Thursday, August 29, 2019
Time: 10:30-12:00
Venue: SMBC Academia Hall, 4F International Academic Research Building, the University of Tokyo (MAP)
Language: English
Registration: Please register from here.
Abstract:
The UK political world has been in turmoil for the past few months. Whilst Brexit has dominated the agenda, on defence matters, a quiet but rather unprecedented debate has emerged in government and Parliament about the role the UK should play in East Asian security. This debate has gained momentum between March and this past month.
In this GraSPP seminar, Dr. Patalano will discuss the following questions drawn from recent such discussions. How important is the Asia Pacific region to the UK? What are the UK’s strategic interests in this region? What is the most suitable posture to meet their requirements?
The answers to these questions draw upon two papers Dr. Patalano has published focusing both on the defence debates from the 1960s defence posture review – the last time East Asian Security was debated among London officials – and on the experience of recent defence engagement in the region:
- “Days of Future Past? British strategy and the shaping of Indo-Pacific security”, with a Foreword by Sir Michael Fallon MP, former British Defence Minister (Policy Exchange, London 2019)
- “UK Defence from the ‘Far East’ to the ‘Indo-Pacific’” with a Foreword by Sir Michael Fallon MP, former British Defence Minister (Policy Exchange, London 2019). This work builds upon an oral evidence session Dr. Patalano contributed to in June on a Defence Committee Inquiry on UK defence in the Far East. The video of the session can be seen at this link. https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/fbefecdd-1294-473e-a8b7-8bf90a445059
Speaker’s biography:
Dr. Alessio Patalano is Reader in East Asian Warfare & Security at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and Visiting Fellow at the Japan Maritime Staff and Command College, Tokyo and Temple University Japan. He is the Director of the King’s Japan Programme, and he specializes in Japanese naval history and strategy, and Sino-Japanese maritime relations in the East and South China Seas.
His latest monograph titled Post-war Japan as a Seapower: Imperial Legacy, Wartime Experience, and the Making of a Navy was published by Bloomsbury in 2015.