The Samurai Preparing For The Dragon S Attack Normative Drivers And Strategic Foundations Of Japan S Security Cooperation With Australia And The United States

The book offers an exploration and analysis of the ideational motives which drove the establishment of the ‘Trilateral Strategic Dialogue’ (TSD), a milestone defense framework that was concluded between Japan, Australia and the United States, in March 2006. Among realists the TSD was quickly identified as power-balancing of the three countries to counter a rising China. However, non-material reasons to establish a common forum for security cooperation are evident. Not only are the three allies democracies, but Japan, and especially Australia look back on decade-old alliances with the United States. Utilizing a constructivist approach, the author argues that the establishment of the TSD can be accounted for by a strongly perceived collective identity between the leaders of the three countries, constituted by shared norms and democratic values. The book sheds light on the normative drivers of the process, and assesses the impact of values by which the leaders of Japan, Australia and the United States mutually connected. It explains the normative mechanisms which led to a security relationship that would grow to unprecedented levels of intimacy. The book highlights the goals and objectives of the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue, and further, explains why South Korea, a democracy and ally of the United States, is not added to the framework. Moreover, the book outlines the role of the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue as one step in the greater strategy of the three governments to establish a community of democratic states in the Asia-Pacific.

For the past sixty years, the U.S. government has assumed that Japan's security policies would reinforce American interests in Asia. The political and military profile of Asia is changing rapidly, however. Korea's nuclear program, China's rise, and the relative decline of U.S. power have commanded strategic review in Tokyo just as these matters have in Washington. What is the next step for Japan's security policy? Will confluence with U.S. interests—and the alliance—survive intact? Will the policy be transformed? Or will Japan become more autonomous? Richard J. Samuels demonstrates that over the last decade, a revisionist group of Japanese policymakers has consolidated power. The Koizumi government of the early 2000s took bold steps to position Japan's military to play a global security role. It left its successor, the Abe government, to further define and legitimate Japan's new grand strategy, a project well under way-and vigorously contested both at home and in the region. Securing Japan begins by tracing the history of Japan's grand strategy—from the Meiji rulers, who recognized the intimate connection between economic success and military advance, to the Konoye consensus that led to Japan's defeat in World War II and the postwar compact with the United States. Samuels shows how the ideological connections across these wars and agreements help explain today's debate. He then explores Japan's recent strategic choices, arguing that Japan will ultimately strike a balance between national strength and national autonomy, a position that will allow it to exist securely without being either too dependent on the United States or too vulnerable to threats from China. Samuels's insights into Japanese history, society, and politics have been honed over a distinguished career and enriched by interviews with policymakers and original archival research. Securing Japan is a definitive assessment of Japanese security policy and its implications for the future of East Asia.

The world of the samurai, the legendary elite warrior cult of old Japan, has for too long been associated solely with military history and has largely remained a mystery. In this exciting new book, Stephen Turnbull, the world's leading authority on the samurai, goes beyond the battlefield to paint a picture of the samurai as they really were. The world of the samurai warrior is revealed to be one of great richness, with familiar topics such as the cult of suicide, ritualised revenge and the lore of the samurai sword being seen in the context of an all-encompassing warrior culture that was expressed through art and poetry as much as through violence.

This volume "is the result of the China Maritime Studies Institute's annual conference in Newport during May 2010, which involved the participation of almost a dozen Chinese specialist presenters, who were able to exchange ideas with their American counterparts."--p. 2

This Compendium gives an outline of the historical, philosophical and ethical aspects of the return of cultural objects (e.g. cultural objects displaced during war or in colonial contexts), cites past and present cases (Maya Temple Facade, Nigerian Bronzes, United States of America v. Schultz, Parthenon Marbles and many more) and analyses legal issues (bona fide, relevant UNESCO and UNIDROIT Conventions, Supreme Court Decisions, procedure for requests etc.). It is a landmark publication that bears testament to the ways in which peoples have lost their entire cultural heritage and analyses the issue of its return and restitution by providing a wide range of perspectives on this subject. Essential reading for students, specialists, scholars and decision-makers as well as those interested in these topics.

Addressing a field that has been dominated by astronomers, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists, the contributors to this collection raise questions that may have been overlooked by physical scientists about the ease of establishing meaningful communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence. These scholars are grappling with some of the enormous challenges that will face humanity if an information-rich signal emanating from another world is detected. By drawing on issues at the core of contemporary archaeology and anthropology, we can be much better prepared for contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, should that day ever come.