The Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) at Temple University, Japan Campus cordially invites you to the following evening lecture on Thursday, October 17, 2019. All ICAS events are held in English, open to the public, and admission is free unless otherwise noted.


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- ICAS Event -
Japan and Russia: Contemporary Political, Economic, and Military Relations
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Date & Time: Thursday, October 17, 2019 | 19:30 - 21:00 p.m. (doors open at 19:00 p.m.)
Venue: Temple University, Japan Campus, 1F Parliament <https://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html> 1-14-29 Taishido, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo


Panelists:

Elena Shadrina, Associate Professor, Waseda University
Yu Koizumi, Project Assistant Professor, University of Tokyo
James D. J. Brown, Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University, Japan Campus



Admission: Free and open to the public.
Language: English
RSVP: RSVP is encouraged but not required (icas@tuj.temple.edu <mailto:icas@tuj.temple.edu>).


Overview:
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made relations with Russia a leading priority of his foreign policy. He has met with Russian president Vladimir Putin on a total of 27 occasions, including most recently at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2019. These efforts have yet to break the deadlock in the countries' long-standing dispute over the Russian-held Southern Kuril Islands (Northern Territories in Japan) and a peace treaty remains a distant prospect. Nonetheless, the territorial dispute remains just one aspect of this bilateral relationship.


Our panel seeks to look beyond the narrow territorial issue to evaluate the broader status of Japan-Russia relations in the areas of politics, economics, and the military.


Speaker:
Elena Shadrina holds a PhD in Economics. She is an associate professor at the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University (Tokyo), where she is lecturing on Comparative Economic Systems and Russian Economic Studies. Her most recent research interests include energy governance with application of theoretical frameworks of New Institutional Economics and New Comparative Economics, energy policy and political economy of renewable and conventional energy in Russia and Central Asia, and comparative energy integration in the Eurasian Economic Union and European Union. Some of Dr. Shadrina's most recent publications include contributions to co-authored volumes: "Energy Integration in the Eurasian Economic Union: A Preliminary Study on Progress and Policy Implications" in Economies, Politics and Societies in the Post-Communist Countries: Thirty Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming) and "Renewable Energy in Central Asian Economies: Role in Reducing Regional Energy Insecurity" in Energy Insecurity in Asia: Challenges, Solutions, and Renewable Energy (ADBI Press, 2019).


Yu Koizumi is a project assistant professor at the University of Tokyo. He holds a masters degree from Waseda University. His main research area is Russian security policy, including military strategy, reform of the armed forces, nuclear strategy, strategies in new domains (cyber, information, etc). His latest book Geopolitics of Russia as 'Empire' (Tokyodo Shuppan, 2019, in Japanese) explores the source of Russia's recent coercive behaviors in post-Soviet countries by analyzing various discourses about Russia's self-image. He is a regular contributor to the journal Military Review and actively comments on TV and radio programs.


James D.J. Brown is an associate professor of Political Science at Temple University, Japan Campus. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of York, and postgraduate degrees from the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. His main area of research is Japan's foreign policy and especially Japan-Russia relations. Dr Brown's work has been published in several academic journals, including International Affairs, Asia Policy, International Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, Europe-Asia Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, and Politics. His two most recent books are Japan, Russia and their Territorial Dispute: The Northern Delusion (Routledge 2017) and Japan's Foreign Relations in Asia, edited with Jeff Kingston (Routledge 2018). He also regularly writes op-eds, including for The Nikkei Asian Review, The Japan Times, and The Diplomat.