Eas321 unit 3 lecture slides
- 1. Last Week: Japan’s historical development • Japan as a tributary of China under the T’ang dynasty, AD 618-906 (Chinese world order) • Sakoku-jidai Tokugawa era (1600-1868) • Rising industrial power - victory in Russo- Japanese War, 1904-5 (Imperial world order) • Militarism and colonialism (World War II) • Anti-militarism and bilateralism post-1945 (Cold War order) • Normalization, multilateralism post-Cold War, but continued reliance upon bilateralism towards greater proactivity independence under Abe?
- 2. Unit 3. Explanation of Japan's international relations: structure, agency and norms Prof. Glenn Hook
- 3. Aim • to introduce structure, agency and norms as the key conceptual tools at the heart of the theoretical approach adopted to Japan’s international relations as ‘normal’
- 4. Objectives 1) to discuss in what ways the approach adopted differs from other approaches to the study of Japan’s international relations; 2) to demonstrate how structure, agency and norms can be used to explain Japan’s international relations; 3) to illustrate through examples how structure, agency and norms can be used to explain Japan’s international relations.
- 5. The Approach: how does it differ from other approaches to the study of Japan’s international relations? • An eclectic approach which draws upon the collective insights and strengths of four traditions in the study of international relations, whilst striving to overcome their individual shortcomings and weaknesses (combining elements of realism, liberalism, constructivism and policy making studies with IPE)
- 6. The political globe: its interactions can be understood in terms of structure, agency and norms
- 7. Explaining Japan’s international relations: structure, agency and norms • International structures: states, institutions and regional frameworks • Bipolarity and multi-polarity • Constraints and opportunities
- 8. International Structure Agency: Key actors and policy makers Domestic and international norms Anti-militarism Bilateralism
- 9. Domestic agency • Policy making models: central bureaucracy, big business (zaikai) and the governing party (tripartite elite model) • MOFA, MOF and METI • The Prime Minister and the Kantei
- 10. The influence of catch-all party politics and business • Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) • Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) • Business community
- 11. Japan’s National Diet and Bank of Japan
- 12. Other political parties • Social Democratic Party of Japan • People’s New Party • Kōmei Party • Liberal Party • Japan Communist Party
- 13. Domestic Society • Mass Media • Think Tanks • Academic Community • Sub-state political authorities • Pressure groups, non-governmental organizations, social movements and public opinion
- 15. Norms • Internationally embedded norms: Bilateralism, Asianism, Trilateralism, Internationalism • Domestically embedded norms: Anti- militarism, Developmentalism, Economism
- 16. Reactivity and Proactivity: how structure, agency and norms can be used to explain Japan’s international relations • Reactivity and immobilism • Proactivity • Normal reactivity and proactivity of the Japanese state
- 17. Normal modes of instrumentalization • Crisis and long-term policy-making • Formal, informal and proxy channels • Sources of quiet diplomacy • Cultural determinism? • Unilateral, bilateral and multilateral levels
- 18. Instrumentalizing policy • Primacy of economic power • State and TNC’s combined use of economic power as both “carrot” and “stick” to induce cooperative behavior • Continuation of seikei bunri (China, Burma) • Inter-reliance with the US and China
- 19. Conclusion: key elements and variables of structure, agency and norms • Structure, agency and norms can be used in combination to provide a distinct, eclectic theoretical approach which can explain Japan’s international relations; • Key elements: structure of the international system, agency of leading actors, norms which inform actions; • Changing structure, from bipolar to multipolar and back again(?), increasing agency of the Prime Minister, pre-eminence of bilateralism internationally and antimilitarism domestically