Not quite the 'Great Britain of the Far East': Japan's security, the US-Japan alliance and the 'war on terror' in East Asia

Japan, in responding to US expectations for support in the 'war on terror', has displayed a degree of strategic convergence on global security objectives, thus prompting policy-makers and observers to dub it the 'Great Britain of the Far East'. This article argues, however, that Japan is far from assuming this role. For Japan, the 'war on terror' serves more as a political pretext for legitimating long-planned changes in military security policy that are often only marginally related to the US's anti-terrorism agenda. Instead, Japan has focused much more on using the terror threat rationale as a means to push forward its response to the regional and traditional security challenges of North Korea and China, even if at times it attempts to depict both as 'new security challenges' or as involving elements of counterterrorism. The final conclusion is that US military hegemony may be weakened by Japan's and the Asia-Pacific's potential divergence from the US global security agenda

A freshman seminar: energy -- the history of a concept

This new freshman honors seminar, to be first offered in Spring 2019, uses the development of the concept of energy from the 17th to the 20th century to combine the teaching of both scientific inquiry and intellectual history. By reading original papers as well as modern works, students trace the concept of energy from Leibniz's vis viva, through the development of steam power and thermodynamics to relativity and quantum concepts. Students also explore how the concept of energy and the conservation of energy is central to our current understanding of both life and the physical universe and to the way humans live today.Published versio

Significant Dot: The 1769 transit of Venus - a tale of astronomy, medicine and empire

This article places the 6 June 2012 transit of Venus in the context of James Cook’s voyage from England to the South Pacific to observe the 1769 transit of Venus. A description is given on how to use a computer program called Stellarium to ‘observe’ the 1769 transit of Venus exactly as Cook saw it from the island of Tahiti in the South Pacific

Folk music: from local to national to global

This chapter traces the shifting situation and nature of Japanese folk music from ‘traditional’ times to the present day. Topics covered include: importation of the European concept of ‘the folk’; distinction between folk song (min’yō) and folk performing arts (minzoku geinō); folk music in the traditional community; music and local identity, past and present (e.g. local vs national identity; folk music’s role in ‘community building’ in modern Japan); professionalization, commodification, folklorization, secularization and the emergence of stage performances; musical change and the Western impact (e.g. fusion); the rise in popularity of wadaiko, Tsugaru-jamisen and Okinawan music; research history and trends

Reflections on globalisation, security and 9/11

The study of globalisation carries important conceptual insights into the contemporary security agenda following the events of September 11th 2001 ('9/11'). This article argues that globalisation can be defined in a variety of ways, ranging from liberalisation to Westernisation, and can also be extended into concepts of supra-territorialisation. In combination, these definitions help to explain the generation of 9/11 style-conflict by providing the political-economic motivation for hyper-terrorism, by facilitating the political identities and activities of non-state actors; and by creating an environment for the global reach of terror movements. Additionally, the interconnection between globalisation and security can be seen in the response of the United States to 9/11 and its striving to project military power on a global scale with declining reference to time and geographical distance, and the varied ability of sovereign states to respond to the challenge of trans-sovereign security problems in the future

Japan's security policy, the US-Japan alliance, and the 'war on terror': incrementalism confirmed or radical leap?

Japan's response to the 'war on terror', in the form of the despatch of the JSDF to the Indian Ocean and Iraq, has given policy-makers and academic analysts grounds for believing that Japan is becoming a more assertive military power in support of its US ally. This article argues that JSDF despatch does not necessarily mark a divergence from Japan's previous security path over the short term. This is because its policy-makers have continued to hedge around commitments to the US through careful constitutional framing of JSDF missions and capabilities, allowing it opt-out clauses in future conflicts, and because it has also sought to pursue economic and alternative diplomatic policies in responding to terrorism and WMD proliferation in the Middle East. However, at the same this article argues that Japan has established important precedents for expanded JSDF missions in the 'war on terror', and that over the medium to longer terms these are likely to be applied to the bilateral context of the US-Japan security treaty in East Asia, and to push Japan towards becoming a more active military power through participation in US-led multinational 'coalitions of the willing' in East Asia and globally

The political economy of Japanese sanctions towards North Korea: domestic coalitions and international systemic pressures

Japan has often been dismissed by mainstream international relations and policy discourse as a bit-part actor in Korean Peninsula security affairs. If ascribed any role at all, it is seen as a secondary and submissive actor, generally bending to US strategy and international systemic pressures. This paper argues, however, that Japanese policy towards North Korea is now challenging these international systemic pressures, and threatening divergence with US policy. This is due to the fact that Japan's policy is increasingly driven by domestic political considerations that are rivalling or even superseding international influences in importance. In order to highlight these domestic dynamics, the paper utilizes domestic sanctions theory and a detailed empirical analysis of the Japanese policy-making process with regard to the imposition of sanctions on North Korea. It demonstrates that a "threshold coalition" has now emerged in Japan which is tipping government policy towards sanctions, irrespective of, or even in opposition to, international systemic pressures to desist from such actions. The paper highlights the changing disposition of a pluralistic range of domestic actors away from default engagement to default containment. The consequence of these aggregate domestic pressures is that the Japanese government is finding it progressively harder to converge with US and international strategy towards North Korea. Japan is thus set to augment its influence in Korean Peninsula security affairs by becoming a more obstructive partner in attempts to find an international resolution to the nuclear crisis

A new kind of first year physics prac

In 2008 the first year units of the restructured SC01 applied science program were introduced. One of these new units is SCB110 Science Concepts and Global Systems, which covers a very broad range of subjects such as the history of philosophy, geology, physics, climate change etc. A practical exercise to compliment the physics component of the course was required. The purpose of this practical assignment was to introduce students to some fundamental aspects of experimental science that included topics such as hypothesis testing, statistics, experimental error, referencing, visual display of results etc. Due to logistical problems of providing a single hands-on physics experiment for approximately 250 students, an activity was devised which involved students viewing a 14-minute video of an experiment to measure the speed of light in two blocks of glass using a laser beam. The video was placed on Blackboard in Podcast and QuickTime formats and a DVD was placed in the Gardens Point and Carseldine libraries. Students were given a document (via Blackboard) which included data collected from the experiment shown in the video and instructions on how to analyse the data and write a short scientific report with a 200-word abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and reference sections. The document also included a photograph and diagram of the experimental set-up for students to include in their reports. Students were required to work in teams of two or three although an allowance was made for students who couldn’t manage to find a partner or who were intent on writing the report on their own. A survey was included in the document on Blackboard. Of the 242 enrolled students, 191 (78.3%) performed the prac and 112 (58.6%) of these students responded to the survey. The survey results are presented in this poster

Japan's response to China's rise : regional engagement, global containment, dangers of collision

Japan and China's ability to manage their bilateral relationship is crucial for the stability of the East Asian region. It also has a global impact on the security and economic development of other regions. For just as China's rise has inevitably involved an expansion of its global reach, so Japan's responses to the challenges posed by China have increasingly taken a global form, seeking to incorporate new partners and frameworks outside East Asia. Japan's preferred response to China's regional and global rise in the post-Cold War period has remained one of default engagement. Japan is intent on promoting China's external engagement with the East Asia region and its internal domestic reform, through upgrading extant bilateral and Japan-China-US trilateral frameworks for dialogue and cooperation, and by emphasizing the importance of economic power to influence China. Japan is deliberately seeking to proliferate regional frameworks for cooperation in East Asia in order to dilute, constrain and ultimately engage China's rising power. However, Japan's engagement strategy also contains the potential to tilt towards default containment. Japan's domestic political basis for engagement is becoming increasingly precarious as China's rise stimulates Japanese revisionism and nationalism. Japan also appears increasingly to be looking to contain China on a global scale by forging new strategic links in Russia and Central Asia, with a `concert of democracies' involving India, Australia and the US, by competing for resources with China in Africa and the Middle East, and by attempting to articulate a values-based diplomacy to check the so-called `Beijing consensus'. Nevertheless, Japan's perceived inability to channel China's rise either through regional engagement or through global containment carries a further risk of pushing Japan to resort to the strengthening of its military power in an attempt to guarantee its essential national interests. It is in this instance that Japan and China run the danger of a military collision