The Place of Regional Institution-Building in German and Japanese Foreign Policies: Current Approaches
Please join AGI on Thursday, April 18, 2013 for a seminar with Dr. Gale Mattox, Senior Visiting Fellow of the AGI Foreign & Domestic Policy Program, and Dr. Kuniko Ashizawa, Visiting Fellow at the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS, on “The Place of Regional Institution-Building in German and Japanese Foreign Policies: Current Approaches.” The discussion will take place from 2:00 to 4:00pm in the R.G. Livingston Conference Room of AGI, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 700. All visitors are now required to check in at the entrance to the building for security measures.
As Europe and Asia face significant challenges in regional institution-building, the positions of Germany and Japan are central to an understanding of regional trajectories. From the 1950s as a member of NATO and a founding member of the European Union, Germany has pursued a policy of multilateralism that has embedded it in regional institutions. Germany adopted this approach after WWII to reassure its neighbors, to legitimize its status on the continent by assuming responsibilities, and eventually to re-enter the international arena. Berlin has evolved as a major leader in the EU, particularly in the area of economic policy. As the third largest NATO force in Afghanistan, it has proven to be a steadfast ally, but outside its borders in a military role, Berlin has been much more tentative and halting – take Iraq, Libya, and Mali for examples. Discussion will focus on this hesitancy in Germany’s approach not only in NATO, but also with respect to EU efforts to coordinate foreign and security policy.
Regional institution-building represents a major post-Cold War phenomenon in Asia, which currently receives renewed attention thanks, in large part, to the U.S. decision to join the East Asian Summit. In this particular realm of regional cooperation, Japan has been an uncertain companion for the countries of Asia, with its attitude often found, in the eyes of Asians, as problematic and its bilateral relationship with the United States seen as an obstacle to Asian-centered regional institution-building. Dr. Ashizawa will discuss the evolution of Japan’s policy toward regional institution-building in Asia over the past two decades, highlighting Tokyo’s underlying preferences for regional institutional characteristics and the sources of these preferences, as well as Japan’s present inability to conceptualize a new regional order in Asia.
Dr. Gale A. Mattox is a Professor in the U.S. Naval Academy’s Political Science Department; Chair of the American Political Science Association’s International Security and Arms Control Section; Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s BMW Center; and Senior Visiting Fellow of the AGI Foreign & Domestic Policy Program. Dr. Mattox served in the U.S. Department of State on the Policy Planning Staff working on non-proliferation and European issues and in the Office of Strategic and Theater Nuclear Policy. She was President of Women in International Security (WIIS) and Vice President of the International Studies Association (ISA). Her most recent publication is: “German National Security Policy in the post-Cold War,” in Comparative National Security, Dorman and Kaufman (eds) (Stanford University Press, 2013).
Dr. Kuniko Ashizawa is a Visiting Fellow at the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS and an Adjunct Professor at the American University School of International Service. From 2005 to 2012, she was a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes University in the U.K. Dr. Ashizawa was a Visiting Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the East-West Center in Washington, D.C., and the United National University in Tokyo. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her forthcoming book is When Identity Matters: Japan, the U.S., and Regional Institution-Building in the New Asia (Palgrave Macmillan).
Please RSVP by Monday, April 15 by clicking on the Register link above.
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