Akihiro Iwashita is a professor and director
of the Slavic Research Center at Hokkaido University in Japan. Previously,
he was a visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies
at the Brookings Institution. He was awarded the 2007 JSPS Prize and the
2006 Osaragi Jiro Prize for Commentary. Professor Iwashita's publications
include Toward a New Dialogue on Eurasia: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization
and its Partners; and Eager Eyes Fixed on Eurasia: Vol. 1 Russia and its Neighbors in Crisis and Vol. 2 Russia and its Eastern Edge.
Nobumasa Akiyama is an associate professor
in the Graduate School of International Law at Hitotsubashi University
and an adjunct research fellow for the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament
and Non-Proliferation at the Japan Institute of International Affairs
(JIIA). Previously he served as a senior research fellow at JIIA, and
a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Law at Kyushu University.
Professor Akiyama's publications include "Fukuda Doctrine Revisited:
Is There a Japanese Vision for Asian Regionalism?" in Regional
Security in East Asia: Challenges to Cooperation and Confidence Building and
"Dynamics of Global-Regional Concerns on Proliferation: Who Should be
Responsible?" in West Asia in Turmoil: Implication for Global Security.
Japan's recent Lower House elections propelled the DPJ to leadership, ending
an almost 50-year political domination by the LDP. Professors Iwashita and
Akiyama will discuss the new administration's take on foreign policy, examining
its attitudes toward regional relations with countries such as Russia, China
and the United States, as well as its perceptions of global concerns such as
environmental and nuclear issues.
