Seminar: Contending Paradigms of Japanese Diplomacy
About the Seminar
The standard understanding of Japanese diplomacy is that policy outcomes result from an interaction between three approaches: conservative nationalism (right), liberal pacifism (left), and the centrist line. The balance has now shifted toward the right, rendering the influence of the left virtually ineffective. However, this does not mean that the contestation of differing approaches has disappeared. Rather, there now appears to be a newly emerging line between the two approaches or paradigms of foreign policy, with the rise of China functioning as the point of difference. The lecture will discuss the implications of these changes for Japanese diplomacy toward Southeast Asia.
About the Speaker
Yoshihide Soeya is Professor of international relations at the Faculty of Law of Keio University. His areas of interest are politics and security in East Asia, and Japanese diplomacy and its external relations. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1987, majoring in world politics. Dr Soeya served, in 1999-2000, as a member of the “Prime Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century,” and, in 2010, as a member of “the Council on Security and Defense Capabilities in the New Era,” both in the Prime Minister’s Office. His recent publications in English includes “The Evolution of Japan’s Public Diplomacy: Haunted by its Past History”, Jan Melissen and Yul Sohn, eds., Understanding Public Diplomacy in East Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by morning of 6 March 2017.