Session 04

Will the Sun Also Rise? Japan’s Quest for “Normal Status”

With the rise of China and North Korea combined with a United States bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, there was more serious talk in Japan about becoming a “normal state” that was not constrained by a pacifist military doctrine and that could play a much larger role in shaping regional security dynamics. While Japan has not abolished Article 9 of its constitution, such talk has raised hackles across the Sea of Japan. This week, we will discuss Japan’s role in the post-Cold War security system in East Asia.

Required Reading:

·        Wang, Zheng. “Causes and Prospects for Sino-Japanese Tensions: A Political Analysis.” In Clash of National Identities: China, Japan and East China Territorial Dispute, edited by Tatsushi Arai, Shihoko Goto, and Zheng Wang, 29–36. Washington D.C., USA: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2012. http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/asia_china_seas_web.pdf.

Suggested Readings:

·        Yang, Daqing. “History: From Dispute to Dialogue.” In Clash of National Identities: China, Japan and East China Territorial Dispute, edited by Tatsushi Arai, Shihoko Goto, and Zheng Wang, 19–28. Washington D.C., USA: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2012. http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/asia_china_seas_web.pdf.

Competing Visions of East Asian Order in the Post-Cold War Era

When the Cold War ended, analysts scrambled to predict how regional politics in East Asia would proceed. The three major theoretical paradigms—realism, neoliberal institutionalism, and constructivism—all suggested different ways in which regional politics could develop, from geopolitical competition to economic integration to the development of a regional identity.

Required Reading:

·        Sheldon W. Simon. ASEAN and the New Regional Multilateralism: The Long and Bumpy Road to Community. in Shambaugh and Yahuda 195-214.

Suggested Readings:

·        Thomas U. Berger. “Power and Purpose in Pacific East Asia: A Constructivist Interpretation”, in G. John Ikenberry and Michael Mastanduno (eds.) International Relations Theory and the Asia-Pacific (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 387-419. (33 pages)