AT our workshop this month, "Being a Security Fact in Post-Cold War Japan." Michael Edward Walsh, an exchange researcher at Waseda University, will present on June 26* He is an American who is completing a PhD at SOAS in Politics and International Relations.

Michael argues that terms like security threat, armed attack, irregular militias, maritime piracy, armed insurgency, cyber warfare, and terrorism look like objective descriptions of reality, but on closer examination they are based on quite subjective notions.
He traces the social construction of such terms through case studies of the Japanese security discourses following the end of the Cold War. His theoretical inspirations come from the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, political philosophy, and international relations literatures.

Guests are welcome. If convenient, let me know you are coming at jccamp@umich.edu

John Campbell

*Meetings of the Shaken Social Science Dissertation Workshop start at 12 pm on Thursdays and go to 1:30 and sometimes beyond. The Institute of Social Science provides coffee and tea and you are welcome to bring lunch. The location is room 533 on the 5th floor in the Akamon General Research (Sougou Kenkyuu) Building. The building is off to the right after you come through Akamon, or you can cut through the grounds of Ito Hall off Hongou Doori. It is Bldg 38 on this map:

http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/about/documents/Hongo_CampusMap_E.pdf