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IJS Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: Richard Samuels, "Japan’s Grand Strategy and the US-Japan Alliance"

Richard Samuels
February 17, 2017
2:30PM - 4:00PM
Mason Hall Rotunda (250 W Woodruff Ave)

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2017-02-17 14:30:00 2017-02-17 16:00:00 IJS Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: Richard Samuels, "Japan’s Grand Strategy and the US-Japan Alliance" IJS presents the 2017 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture:Richard J. SamuelsFord International Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for International StudiesMassachusetts Institute of Technology"Japan’s Grand Strategy and the US-Japan Alliance"Flyer: BRML Flyer - Richard Samuels.pdf Friday, February 17, 2017Meet and Greet: 2:00 - 2:30 pmLecture: 2:30 - 4:00 pmReception: 4:00 - 5:00 pmAbstract: For the past 70 years, the U.S. government has assumed that Japan’s security policies reinforce American interests in Asia.  The political and military profile of Asia is changing rapidly, however.  North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, China’s rise, and the relative decline of U.S. power have commanded strategic reviews in Tokyo just as they have in Washington.  What is the next step for Japan’s security policy?  Will its confluence with U.S. interests—and the alliance—survive intact?  Will Japan become more autonomous?  Richard Samuels explores how changes in the regional security environment have interacted with changes in domestic Japanese politics to shape Japan’s grand strategic choices.Bio: Richard Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at MIT. He has been Head of the MIT Political Science Department, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Japan of the National Research Council, and Chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission.  He has also been Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, where he directs a research group on East Asian Security.  Richard Samuels was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the government of Japan in 2011.  He has published numerous articles in academic journals such as Foreign Affairs, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, National Interest, Journal of Japanese Studies, and Daedalus. Samuels' Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia, was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book in international affairs. Machiavelli's Children won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies and the Jervis-Schroeder Prize from the International History and Politics section of American Political Science Association.  Samuel’s earlier books were also awarded prizes from the Association for Asian Studies, the Association of American University Press, and the Ohira Memorial Prize.  His study of the political and policy consequences of the 2011 Tohoku catastrophe, 3:11: Disaster and Change in Japan, was published by Cornell University Press in 2013.  Richard Samuels is Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Free and open to the public. Please consider giving to Brad Richardson Memorial Fund.  Details for donations online or by check can be found at BuckeyeFunder.This event is made possible in part by a Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs grant via the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit and by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center. Mason Hall Rotunda (250 W Woodruff Ave) East Asian Studies Center easc@osu.edu America/New_York public

IJS presents the 2017 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture:

Richard J. Samuels
Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for International Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Japan’s Grand Strategy and the US-Japan Alliance"

Flyer: PDF icon PDF icon BRML Flyer - Richard Samuels.pdf

 


Friday, February 17, 2017
Meet and Greet:
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Lecture: 2:30 - 4:00 pm
Reception: 4:00 - 5:00 pm


Abstract: For the past 70 years, the U.S. government has assumed that Japan’s security policies reinforce American interests in Asia.  The political and military profile of Asia is changing rapidly, however.  North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, China’s rise, and the relative decline of U.S. power have commanded strategic reviews in Tokyo just as they have in Washington.  What is the next step for Japan’s security policy?  Will its confluence with U.S. interests—and the alliance—survive intact?  Will Japan become more autonomous?  Richard Samuels explores how changes in the regional security environment have interacted with changes in domestic Japanese politics to shape Japan’s grand strategic choices.

Bio: Richard Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at MIT. He has been Head of the MIT Political Science Department, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Japan of the National Research Council, and Chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission.  He has also been Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, where he directs a research group on East Asian Security.  Richard Samuels was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the government of Japan in 2011.  He has published numerous articles in academic journals such as Foreign Affairs, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, National Interest, Journal of Japanese Studies, and Daedalus. Samuels' Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia, was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book in international affairs. Machiavelli's Children won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies and the Jervis-Schroeder Prize from the International History and Politics section of American Political Science Association.  Samuel’s earlier books were also awarded prizes from the Association for Asian Studies, the Association of American University Press, and the Ohira Memorial Prize.  His study of the political and policy consequences of the 2011 Tohoku catastrophe, 3:11: Disaster and Change in Japan, was published by Cornell University Press in 2013.  Richard Samuels is Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Free and open to the public. 


Please consider giving to Brad Richardson Memorial Fund.  Details for donations online or by check can be found at BuckeyeFunder.


This event is made possible in part by a Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs grant via the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit and by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.