SSJ Friends,


The Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS), along with its co-sponsors the Japan-US Military Program (JUMP) and Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), is pleased to invite you to our next seminar. Dr. Guilio Pugliese of King's College London will speak on the topic, "Between Grand Strategy & Grandstanding: Foreign Policy in Japan" in Yokosuka on 9 Aug. Please see the details below.


Best regards,


John Bradford


President, YCAPS


Date/Time: 9 Aug. 5:30-6:30 welcome reception. 6:30-8:30 seminar.


Location: Honcho Community Center in Yokosuka (Sogo Fukushi Kaikan Hall), 5th Floor, Room 2
http://www.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp.e.rb.hp.transer.com/2410/sisetu/fc00000422.html <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp.e.rb.hp.transer.com%2F2410%2Fsisetu%2Ffc00000422.html&h=AT0xRRiThMJhb2KPpbgiWEdPW7CxgZawGas9-sjY_wjp8zqiKi_8_ge_Vf4Bfkpfy345E9hTA3EK0qy0cbe7vO5Be5rZrj-1AunOYg3BBHp_OL_NupKhMbyiqzto4ReULw> or https://goo.gl/maps/yjYXjBm1o722




Cost: Free


RSVP:Preferred, but not required, via info@YCAPS.org <mailto:info@YCAPS.org>




Abstract:


Abe Shinzō's Grand Strategy aims at balancing an assertive China. This points at the primacy of international factors in explaining foreign policy output. At the very same time, Abe's foreign policy has catered to the vagaries of domestic politics and premier-centered "spin". In this presentation, Dr. Giulio Pugliese will argue that the sources of Japanese foreign policy development are both international and domestic, and the two can be successfully combined.




Start the evening by anytime during the 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM reception that will feature a light meal, drinks, and excellent conversation. Find seats at 6:30 PM for this YCAPS-JUMP Seminar in Yokosuka's Honcho Community Center near the US Navy Base's main gate.



Dr. Pugliese will explain that a progressively changing post-Cold War order has brought along mounting insecurity and the need for states to respond to such changes through a reformulation of their main foreign policy line. In the Asia-Pacific, like elsewhere, the growing insistence by public officials on lofty strategic pronouncements is however also the by-product of a changed domestic political landscape, where charismatic leadership rests on the growing vagaries of a media-saturated public opinion environment.




Traditional theories of foreign policy have presented a dichotomous separation of foreign policy formation: the inside-out perspective stresses the domestic determinants of Japan's foreign policy; an outside-in (or systemic) approach favors broader international structural forces and dynamics, such as the distribution of power in the international system. More complex theories have presented a dualist or dialectical framework, where both international and domestic variables impact on foreign policy.




Dr. Pugliese's presentation uses the case of Abe Shinzo's Grand Strategy and foreign policy formulation to make the case for the primacy of a systemic approach that, at the very same time, caters to the above-mentioned strictures of domestic politics. The presentation will try to advance a novel conceptualization of foreign policy formation in Japan and other mature democracies.






Speaker:



Dr. Giulio Pugliese specializes in the politics, both domestic and international, of the Asia-Pacific with his focus being on Japan, China and the United States. He earned a Laurea (B.A.) in Political Science and East Asian Studies at the University of Naples, "L'Orientale" (cum laude), an M.A. in International Economics and International Relations (concentrating on East Asian Studies) at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University and Ph.D. work at the University of Cambridge. He conducted extensive fieldwork in Tokyo, while based at the National Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) under the mentorship of Prof. Kitaoka Shinichi. Prior to his appointment at King's College London he worked as an Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at Heidelberg University's Institute of Chinese Studies.




Dr. Pugliese also worked in Japan for about four years - as an intern at Kyodo News, as a "foreign civil servant" in Azuchi and Ōmihachiman City Hall, and at the Mitsubishi Research Institute writing on arms export regulations for a study commissioned by Japan's Ministry of Economics Trade and Industry (METI). He also worked as a freelance translator from Japanese to English for academic and policy publications.





Learn more about YCAPS at www.YCAPS.org <http://www.ycaps.org/>, JUMP at https://www.jumprogram.org/ <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jumprogram.org%2F&h=AT2lp03OgoSveAA0L2eN6pRrDG1c3kdD50CbHJMIursyvKxVh5nG6M3T1_M791B3s7219HJ5nzTyVB5us1qLG_wHXG7RNlkzfJ0tP4wgsdAdFMGXSusm7rXvlXIsXxqG2Q> and ICAS at https://www.tuj.ac.jp/icas/.