Annual Seminar Series SeminarThursday 22 November 2018
6:00pm – 7:30pm
New approaches to security: Does Japan have other options than the US?
Drinks reception: 7:30pm – 8:00pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Fully bookedJapan’s foreign and security policy has remained unchanged under the leadership of Prime Minister Abe, and the Japan-US alliance remains coherent and strong so far. With Donald Trump as President of the United States, however, anything could happen. In the longer term, there is the possibility that President Trump’s America, or anybody else’s America, may be a less reliable ally, and may weaken its treaty obligations to defend Japan, given that US public opinion is increasingly unenthusiastic about international commitments of this kind.
Should that be the case, however, is an exit from the US-Japan Security Treaty, the pillar of Japan’s post-war foreign and security policy, a viable option for Japan? If not, what can Japan do to prevent that from happening? Will there be any other options available? What would be the impact and implications of each of these options for the future of regional and global order? These are the questions that this lecture addressed from political, constitutional, economic and demographic viewpoints. Two experts from Japan and the UK discussed how Japan should best maintain its peace and prosperity in this new age.
Listing image credits: REUTERS / Joshua Roberts – stock.adobe.com
A written summary of the presentation can be found via the button below:
Written Summary, New Approaches to Security, PDFA video of the seminar can be found here:
About the contributors
Professor Naoyuki Agawa
Professor Naoyuki Agawa is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Doshisha University, Kyoto, where he teaches American constitutional law and history. He has previously served as the Minister for Public Affairs in charge of public diplomacy and press relations at the Embassy of Japan in Washington DC. Naoyuki currently sits on the board of councillors of the Suntory Foundation and the United States-Japan Council. He has often served as an advisor to the government of Japan, including in his current membership of CULCON, a group that advises the Japanese and US governments on matters related to bilateral, cultural and educational exchanges. Naoyuki is the author of numerous books including: Understanding America Today through Its Constitution (2017); A History of Constitutional Amendments and Other Changes in America (2016); American History through the United States Constitution (2004, 2013) (for which he received the Yomiuri-Yoshino Sakuzo Award in 2005); and The Friendship on the Seas: the United States Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, (2001).
Professor G. John Ikenberry
Professor G. John Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also Co-Director of Princeton’s Centre for International Security Studies and Co-Director of the Princeton Project on National Security. John was the 72nd Eastman Professor at Balliol College, Oxford, in 2013-14, and Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, in 2018-19. He has previously served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff (1991-92), as a member of an advisory group at the State Department (2003-04), and as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S.-European relations. John is the author of numerous journal articles, essays and books, including the books: Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American System (2011); and After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars (2001) which won the 2002 Schroeder-Jervis Award. John is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.