Culture and collective action: Japan, Germany and the United States after 11 September 2001

In order to put a lens on the issue of international security cooperation after 11 September 2001, this article examines the question of how collective action in International Relations becomes possible. The author maintains that a fair amount of inter-state collective action can be understood, even explained, by analysing the culture of the international system. Using discourse analysis as a tool, the analysis addresses the underlying ideas, norms and identities that constitute the relationship between the United States and Japan, on the one hand, and Germany and the United States, on the other, as it has evolved since September 2001. The method exposes how some ideas are privileged over others, how norms are maintained, reformulated and abandoned, how identity is constructed and how power is legitimized in the 'war on terror'

The significance of strategic communications: implications for the free and open indo-pacific initiative

Strategic communications, meaning the coherent use of words, actions and other communicative means to achieve a policy goal, play a particularly important role in international affairs today for reasons that are related to the elevated role that values play in international security. Values are by their nature intrinsically linked to the formation of national interests and furthermore to the formation of the international order. As today’s international confrontations arise from different interpretations by major powers of what constitutes a ‘rules-based international order,’ the role of values-based persuasion has been greatly elevated. In the light of this altered political landscape, strategic communications now need to occupy a central place in strategy to shape the international rules-based order, which is based on the capacity to convey both interests and values. Indeed, a doctrinal review of strategic communications suggests that they have a constitutive function, in addition to defensive and resilience-building functions to protect against counter-narratives and malign influences. Strategic communications play a role in structuring the perceptions and behaviour of target audiences, putting them among the tools that states have to shape the international security environment

紛争の変容と民軍関係の展開 : 戦略、活動、現場レベルの一貫性と統合に関する一考察

「国際平和活動における民軍関係の課題」第一部「民軍関係と学術研究」第2