The Institute for Japanese Studies presents:
“The Challenge of Global Governance and Japan’s Role"
Christina Davis
Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and Professor of Government, Harvard University
Harvard University
With post-lecture discussants:
Mitch Lerner
Professor, Department of History, OSU; Director, East Asian Studies Center
The Ohio State University
Alexander Thompson
Professor, Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
William Chou
Fulbright-Hays Scholar, Department of History
The Ohio State University
Flyer: Christina Davis Flyer [PDF]
Abstract: Nationalist populism pushes against liberal internationalism even while economic and health crises demand international cooperation. The core pillars of Japanese foreign policy -- multilateralism, the US-Japan alliance, and engagement in Asia – remain central to how Japan can contribute to global governance. First, Japan must reinforce multilateralism. International organizations support cooperation when peer pressure and enforcement mechanisms uphold compliance. Japan’s experience as a member of international organizations offers lessons for how to use multilateralism to induce reforms. Second, strong U.S.-Japan relations defend principles of free markets and democracy. New leaders in the US and Japan must rebuild confidence in these ideals both at home and in their alliance. Finally, Japan lies at the hub of the trade regime complex. It can balance US and Chinese rivalries through skillful diplomacy with other states in Asia to set a middle path for open engagement.
Christina L. Davis is a Professor of Government in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute. She is the Director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and serves as co-executive editor of the Japanese Journal of Political Science.
Her research interests include the politics and foreign policy of Japan and East Asia and the study of international organizations, with a focus on trade policy, and her research has been published in leading political science journals. Professor Davis is the author of Food Fights over Free Trade: How International Institutions Promote Agricultural Trade Liberalization (Princeton University Press, 2003) and Why Adjudicate? Enforcing Trade Rules in the WTO (Princeton University Press, 2012), which won the International Law Book Award and Chadwick F. Alger Prize from the International Studies Association, as well as the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. Currently, she is writing a book on the politics of exit and entry into international organizations and conducting research for several projects on the evolving trade order.
Professor Davis received her A.B. in East Asian studies and her Ph.D. in government from Harvard, and she returned to Harvard in 2018 after 16 years on the faculty of Princeton University.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
“The Forces of Attraction: How Security Interests Shape Membership in Economic Institutions.” Co-author with Tyler Pratt (The Review of International Organizations, 2020).
Landscapes of Law: Practicing Sovereignty in Transnational Terrain, co-editor with Carol Greenhouse (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020)
“Japan: Interest Group Politics, Foreign Policy Linkages, and the TPP.” In Megaregulation Contested: Global Economic Ordering After TPP, (Oxford University Press, 2019)
Free and Open to the Public
If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact Stephanie Metzger at metzger.235@osu.edu or 614-247-4725. Requests made at least two weeks in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
This event is supported by the Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture Fund and a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.
