Dear friends, you might be interested by these two articles from Robert Dujarric
- The Republicans' exceptionally bad view (published in The Diplomat, 2 April 2012)
- Rethinking the Japanese school year: Bakumatsu or Meiji? (Point of View/Asahi Shimbun - Asia and Japan
Watch)
_______________________________________________________
_____
The Republicans' exceptionally bad view (published in The Diplomat, 2 April 2012)
(c) The Diplomat

Following is a guest post from Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University Japan in Tokyo.

This year's U.S. presidential primary season has received [2]less attention here in Asia than the previous one, in 2008. This is understandable. For a start, there's only one proper primary campaign (on the Republican side), since President Barack Obama is effectively unopposed in his camp. Moreover, the "clash of titans" that took place last time between the charismatic Barack Obama, hoping to become the first African American to win the country's highest office, and Hillary Clinton, hoping to become the first woman to be elected president, was more captivating to foreign audiences than the current crop of Republican hopefuls.

Moreover, the issues that Republican are debating are, essentially, very "American," and so don't resonate with Asians. For example, relatively few people in Asia are particularly familiar with (nor particularly interested in) the religious and cultural discourse that has marked much of the Republican campaign. And they know little about the details of the health care debate, which has also consumed much media attention in the U.S. Add to this the fact that none of the candidates this year has a compelling biography comparable to that of John McCain, the Republican nominee in 2008, and it's clear why there's so little interest this time around.

And yet the Republican primary is actually very relevant to Asia. Take the question of "American exceptionalism," something that Republicans have accused Obama of rejecting. Like the kokutai in Showa Japan or "socialism with Chinese characteristics" in today's China, the term is hard to define precisely. However, in terms of foreign affairs, it implies a willingness and even responsibility on the part of the United States to use U.S. resources to help shape a global liberal world order.

With this in mind, then, it's hard to argue that Obama has really deviated from this belief. Indeed, his record as commander-in-chief positions him in the tradition of men like George H.W. Bush, who preferred diplomacy, but who didn't hesitate to use military means, preferably in coalition with allies, when they saw no alternative. Indeed, if anything, Obama's willingness to pour American (and Allied) blood and treasure into the hopeless Afghan War suggests a greater belief in the transformational potential of military means than the first President Bush's quick end to the Gulf War implies he held.

In fact, it's the Republican candidates who appear determined, albeit inadvertently, to put an end to the United States'
leading role in
international affairs. For a start, their commitment to slashing government spending at a time when stimulus seems more logical, will only hurt defense and diplomacy efforts at the Pentagon, State Department, USAID and the World Bank.
Second, U.S. foreign policy success since 1941 has been based on a mix of military power and diplomatic skill. When all the major Republican candidates take on a president for [3]apologizing for the burning of Korans in Afghanistan, and espouse the most bellicose views possible on the Middle East (for example, echoing some of the most extremist Israeli politicians and Saudi officials on Iran), their rhetoric belies a dangerously simplistic foreign policy philosophy.

Finally, the leading candidates' [4]rejection of efforts to develop post-oil alternatives for energy amount to the offering of unlimited financing to the oil-rich autocracies of Southwest Asia, which in the process gives succor to groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban that receive funding from wealthy sympathizers in the Persian Gulf nations.

The reality is that the views of the leading Republican contenders for the Oval Office are very much at odds with the mainstream post-World War II Republican tradition represented by Eisenhower, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.
It may be that if a Republican (most probably Mitt
Romney) is elected president
in November, he will[5] jettison his campaign rhetoric and embrace this tradition, a tradition that the second President Bush himself abandoned. But this is far from certain. If the campaign rhetoric is allowed to become a reality, it will undoubtedly hamper the United States'
ability to act as a
global power. And the consequences will be particularly unpleasant for America's Asian allies.
_______________________________________________________
_________
POINT OF VIEW/ Robert Dujarric: Rethinking the Japanese school year: Bakumatsu or Meiji?
(C) The Asahi Shimbun

The University of Tokyo, known by the shortened form of Todai in Japanese, plans to switch its academic year from the standard April entrance/March graduation format to the fall entrance/late spring or early summer graduation timetable that is the norm in the West.

Todai officials realized that accepting the dominant Western pattern was essential for it to remain competitive. In the "old days," universities operated solely in their domestic market.

To be number one at home was sufficient. As the educational market has internationalized, universities have started to compete globally for students and faculty. They also feel that they must offer their customers (otherwise known as students) easy opportunities to study abroad.
Therefore, institutions
such as Todai feel that they must adopt the fall entrance calendar.

Other colleges, especially the most prestigious ones, are considering following in Todai's footsteps.

Unfortunately, there are very convincing arguments to oppose this reform.
Japanese high school students finish their studies in winter. What will they do between graduation and entering university?

The lucky ones will enjoy a long holiday and foreign travel funded by their wealthy parents. But others will have few options besides getting a low-paid, boring part-time (arbeito) job at the convenience store. How will institutions on the old calendar work with ones on the new one (from the timing of conferences, the hiring of new faculty, to the organization of sports competitions)? Upon graduating from university, will they be able to find jobs if most Japanese universities, businesses and government offices continue to run a recruiting system based on starting work in the spring?

Some employers may decide to offer two separate recruiting sessions, but this would be a major hassle. Even in the highly decentralized United States, most corporations have an annual hiring program tailored to a nationally uniform school year (i.e., making offers in the spring and starting work in the late summer or early fall).

The plan by some universities to alter their academic calendar is a welcome sign of internationalization. But it's reminiscent of the incomplete efforts at modernization of the last decade of the Edo Shogunate.
What made the Meiji
reforms so successful was that they thoroughly restructured the entire state and society, whereas in most of Asia the transformation of old institutions was partial and incomplete.

The more logical route to follow is that of the Meiji Reformation, i.e., a thorough reform that is internally consistent. Or, to continue the driving analogy, to emulate Sweden, which at dawn on Sept. 3, 1967, switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right side everywhere.

In this case, the most coherent policy is to move the entire education sector, from kindergarten to universities, to a fall entrance program. Governments and businesses would then obviously adjust their recruitment schedules. The transition year could entail lengthening the first term of the last year of school (be it primary school, junior or senior high school, or college and graduate programs) so that seniors would start as usual in the spring but graduate, say, in early August, and then go on to further education or the labor market in September.

The transition year would be a little chaotic, but with a slightly longer school day, fewer holidays and cutting marginal materials from the curriculum, it would not dramatically affect the quality of education. Numerous individuals would complain, some of them legitimately. But in the end, a "big bang"
approach is better than an incomplete transformation that would require constant tinkering for years--or perhaps decades--while inconveniencing many students, parents and employers.
* * *
Robert Dujarric is director at Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, Temple University, Japan Campus, Tokyo.
_______________________________________________________
__________
Robert Dujarric
Director
Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies
Temple University, Japan Campus