Prof. Richard Samuel
Massachussets Institute of Technology, USA

"Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future
of East Asia"

 

21. November 2007

 

Der Vortrag wurde vom Institut für Japanologie in Kooperation mit dem Sonderforschungs- bereich 700 - Governance in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit - veranstaltet.

For the past sixty years, the U.S. government has assumed that Japan's security policies would reinforce American interests in Asia. The political and military profile of Asia is changing rapidly, however. Korea's nuclear program, China's rise, and the relative decline of U.S. power have commanded strategic review in Tokyo just as they have in Washington.  What is the next step for Japan's security policy? Will confluence with U.S. interests - and the alliance - survive intact? Will it be transformed? Or will Japan become more autonomous?

Professor Samuels will trace the history of Japan's grand strategy - from the Meiji rulers, who recognized the intimate connection between economic success and military advance through Japan's defeat in World War II, and the post war compact with the United States. He will examine how the ideological connections across these wars help explain the discourse today. He will then assess Japan's recent strategic choices, showing how Japan is likely to strike a balance between national strength and national autonomy that will allow it to exist securely without being either too dependent on the United States or too vulnerable to China.

 

Zur Person:

Richard J. SAMUELS is Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Chairman of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and founding director of the MIT Japan Program. He is author of several award-winning books, including "Machiavelli's Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan" (2003) and "Rich Nation, Strong Army": National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan" (1996), also from Cornell.