Akio Kawato is a Research Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation and a Visiting Professor at Waseda University. He retired from the Japanese Foreign Service in 2004 after serving in West Germany, the U.S.S.R., Sweden, the U.S.A. (as Consul-General in Boston) and Uzbekistan (as Ambassador, also accredited to Tajikistan). After his retirement from the diplomatic service, he worked as Chief Economist at the Development Bank of Japan for two years, attempting to identify the major challenges for future Japanese politics, economy, society, and culture. In September 2006 he became a free-lancer, presiding over his own blog ěJapan-World Trendsî (www.akiokawato.com), designed for the international exchange of views among intellectuals (in the Japanese, English, Chinese and Russian languages). He has also traveled extensively in Asia. He does not hastily impose so-called "Western" values on developing countries, but believes that economic development always brings individualism, more democracy, and respect for human rights, a process that took four hundred years in Western Europe. He was educated at Tokyo University, Harvard University (where he received an M.A. in Sovietology and Russian), and Moscow State University. He has published four books on Russia and three others, including (in Japanese): How Japanís Diplomacy Ticks; The End of Meanings, which is on how liberalism and other European values are losing their efficacy; and most recently, The Job of Diplomats.
Henry R. Nau is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University and is Director of the U.S.-Japan-South Korea Legislative Exchange Programs. From January 1981 to July 1983, he served as a senior NSC staff member responsible for international economic affairs. He received his Ph.D. in International Relations at SAIS. Dr. Nauís most recent publications include an essay, "Why We Fight Over Foreign Policy", which just appeared in Policy Review (April/May 2007) drawn from his book published last year, Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas. Previous publications include: At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy; Trade and Security: US Policies at Cross-Purposes; The Myth of America's Decline: Leading the World Economy into the 1990's; "No Enemies on the Right: Conservative Foreign Policy Factions Beyond Iraq" in The National Interest; and Divided Diplomacy and the Next Administration: Conservative and Liberal Alternatives, co-edited with David Shambaugh.
How will it be possible for Japan to balance its long-standing and vital relationship with the United States with the growing need for stronger ties with Asia? Japan and the United States together need to create centripetal momentum in the region and must participate in and shape the emerging order. Is this Asian process unique? Or can something be learned from European experiences?
