Thursday, November 20, 2008, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Yoshihide Soeya is professor of political science at the Faculty of Law, Keio University, and has served as the Director of Keio’s Institute of East Asian Studies since October 2007. Dr. Soeya serves on the boards of directors of the Japan Association of International Studies and the Research Institute for Peace and Security in Tokyo. He is also a member of the Japanese government’s Council on Defense Facilities (MOD), the Council on Industrial Structure (METI), the Advisory Group of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the International Council of the Asia Society in New York. He was a faculty fellow of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (2000-2004), and a visiting professor at the Graduate School of International Studies of Seoul National University in the fall of 2006. He received his Ph.D. in world politics from the University of Michigan in 1987. He writes extensively, both in Japanese and English, on security and politics in East Asia as well as Japan’s external relations and diplomacy. Some of his recent publications in English are "Diplomacy for Japan as a Middle Power" in Japan Echo (April 2008), and “Trilateralism and Northeast Asia,” in Asia-Pacific Security: US, Australia and Japan and the New Security Triangle (2007).
Dr. Michael Auslin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Prior to joining AEI, he was an Associate Professor of History and Senior Research Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, and was the founding director of the Project on Japan-U.S. Relations. He was also a visiting researcher at the Graduate School of Law, Kobe University. He has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund, and a Fulbright and Japan Foundation Scholar. Dr. Auslin received his Ph.D. in Japanese history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His writings on Japan and Japanese diplomacy include the books, Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy and Japan Society: Celebrating a Century, 1907-2007. At AEI, he recently published “A ‘Third Neighbor’ Strategy for Asia,” a detailed proposal to rebuild the U.S. position in the region.
Mr. Alan Romberg is a distinguished fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Center. He previously worked on Asian issues in and out of government, including twenty years as a Foreign Service Officer. He was Principal Deputy Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and Deputy Spokesman of the Department, and served in various capacities dealing with East Asia, including Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs, Member of the Policy Planning Staff for East Asia, and staff member at the National Security Council for China. He served overseas in Hong Kong and Taiwan, spent almost ten years as the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and was Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Romberg holds an MA from Harvard University and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He writes and presents frequently on regional affairs, most recently publishing "Cross-Strait Relations: First the Easy Steps, Then the Difficult Ones" in the Fall 2008 issue of China Leadership Monitor.
Dr. Kent Calder is Edwin O. Reischauer Professor, Director of the Japan Studies and Korea Studies Programs, and Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at The Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Previously he was Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he taught for twenty years. He has also served as Special Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, and Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs. He was also Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Executive Director of the Harvard University Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and a lecturer in the Department of Government, Harvard University. Dr. Calder is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Asian Security, and was formerly Associate Editor of World Politics. He received his Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. His most recent book is Embattled Garrisons: Comparative Base Politics and American Globalism (2007). He also recently co-edited East Asian Multilateralism: Prospects for Regional Stability (2008).
Dr. Soeya outlined his vision of Japan as a "middle
power." Simply
looking at those two words, however, does not give one a good sense
of what such a strategy would entail, and could lead to confusion. He
sees Japan's economic situation as inevitably declining to a "middle
power" level, and proposes closer relations with other "middle
powers" such as Australia and Canada, looking to them as examples of
close U.S. allies who can pursue their own regional and global
strategies. He also argues that changing Article 9 will be necessary
in the future, but sees that revision in the context of a continued
alliance with the U.S. and better relations with South Korea and China.
