Modern Japanese Diplomacy
Instructors
Credits / Language / Semester
2Credits / English / Winter
Objectives/Overview
OBJECTIVES / OVERVIEW
The objective of this course is to provide some ideas to students for better understanding Japan's strategic choices in the coming decades.
The course will approach this task by learning lessons from history as well as by taking a broad global perspective.
We will see how Japan has responded to major strategic challenges it faced at every turning point in its modern history.
We will also look at situation prevailing in different regions comprising the international system, and the implication of the respective regional situation on Japan’s diplomatic strategy. It would thus be more of a "tour d'horizon" of major issues affecting international political structure to which Japan has been and is involved with.
Students will submit a term paper predicting the state of the world order at around the year 2030.
Keywords
modern Japanese diplomacy, Japan's foreign policy strategy
Schedule
1. Introduction: Japan’s current diplomatic strategy
2. Modern International Political and Economic Structure
3. Japan's Strategic Choices: The Opening of Japan; The Road to the Second World War; and the Second "Opening";
Major Diplomatic Relations or Issues (from global strategic perspective)
4. (1) US:
5. (2) Europe
6. (3) Russia
7. (3) Middle East / the Gulf;
8. (4) South Asia and Oceania
9. (5): Southeast Asia (ASEAN); Asian (East Asian) Regionalism ("East Asian Community")
10. (6) China and the Korean Peninsula
11. (7) Global Security Issues: Nuclear Deterrence; Non-Proliferation; International Terrorism
12. (8) Global Economic Issues: Multilateral Institutions vs. regionalism
13. Predicting the Future: "Clash of Civilizations" (?); “Power Transition” (?)
14. "The Third Opening” with "? ": Japan’s Next Strategic Choice
15. Overall Review and discussions on the outlines of the Term Paper
Teaching Methods
The course will be mostly lecture but will provide ample time for discussions after each lecture. Students are encouraged to come well prepared.
Term Paper will require students to predict the global power structure at around the year 2030.
Grading
1) Term Paper 80%
2) Overall engagement, as reflected in active participation in discussions, and weekly preparations 20%
Required Text
Required; preferably read before class begins;
1) Yutaka Kawashima:
Japanese Foreign Policy at the Crossroads
Brookings Institution Press
2) G. John Ikenberry:
After Victory
Liberal Leviathan
Both Princeton Univ Press
3) Samuel Huntington:
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Simon and Schuster
4) The National Intelligence Council;
Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds
published by the NIC of the US, December 2012
Reference Books
For the first few introductory sessions
1) Ian Morris
Why the West rules--for now: the patterns of history, and what they reveal about the future
Profile Books
More to be recommended for various regional or topical issues
Notes on Taking the Course
Suffiently strong English to write a solid term paper