NEWS
Friday 5 July 2019 International Seminar
Japan’s Awakening: Moving Toward an Autonomous Security Policy
On Friday, 5 July 2019, the Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global
Arms Transfer and the Arms and Civil Society Research Forum will host a seminar entitled
"Japan’s Awakening: Moving Toward an Autonomous Security Policy".
Dr. Lionel Fatton, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Webster University Geneva,
Research Collaborator at the Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms
Transfer and Fellow at The Charhar Institute in Beijing. In this seminar, he will discuss the
recent evolution of Japan’s security policy and show how this evolution represents a rupture
with the past practices of exclusively defense-oriented posture and heavy reliance on the United
States for protection. He will further argue that the adoption by Japan of a more autonomous
security policy is triggered by a worsening entrapment-abandonment dilemma, in which Japan worries
about the prospect of being abandoned by the United States vis-à-vis China while it fears being
dragged into a Korean conflict by its traditional ally.
Date and time
Friday, 5 July 2019, 19:00 p.m.–21:00 p.m. (Venue opens at 18:30 p.m.)
Venue
Room C5, 17th Floor, Global Front Building, Meiji University
Map
Entry fee
Free
Seating capacity
30
Registration
Pre-register before 4 July 2019 at the link below. We will close registration when the number of applicants reaches capacity. Your information will be kept confidential by the Arms and Civil Society Research Forum and will be used only to provide you with information on its events.
*The seminar will be held in English only, without translation.
Sponsor
Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer / Arms and Civil Society Research Forum
Panelists
| Speaker | Dr. Lionel Fatton, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Webster University Geneva, Research Collaborator at the Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer and Fellow at The Charhar Institute in Beijing. |
|---|---|
| Chair | Dr. Tamara Enomoto, Visiting Associate Professor, Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer |
About the speaker
Dr. Lionel Fatton is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Webster University
Geneva, Research Collaborator at the Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global
Arms Transfer and Fellow at The Charhar Institute in Beijing. His main research interests are
international and security dynamics in East and Southeast Asia, Japan-China-US relations, Japan’s
security policy, civil-military relations and neoclassical realism. His recent publications include
Japan’s Awakening: Moving Toward an Autonomous Security Policy (Peter Lang, 2019), “A new spear
in Asia: why is Japan moving toward autonomous defense?” (International Relations of the Asia-Pacific,
2018) and “‘Japan is back’: Autonomy and balancing amidst an unstable China-U.S.-Japan triangle”
(Asia & The Pacific Policy Studies, 2018).
Dr. Fatton holds a PhD in Political Science, specialization International Relations, from Sciences
Po Paris and two MA in International Relations from Waseda University in Tokyo and the Graduate
Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
*This seminar is hosted by the Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global
Arms Transfer and the Arms and Civil Society Research Forum. It is partially funded by the Ministry
of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s (MEXT) Program for the Strategic Research
Foundation at Private Universities, 2015–2019 and JSPS KAKENHI grant number JP16K17075.
