Convenors: Dr Giulio Pugliese and Professor Hugh Whittaker
Speaker(s): Mr Koichiro Matsumoto, Director of Research at the Japan Institute of International Affairs
The return of geopolitics in East Asia: Japan’s responses to regional uncertainty
Abstract
The war in Ukraine has recently marked its 600th day since the Russian military started its campaign, while tensions continue to escalate in Israel and Palestine, claiming the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. Against this backdrop, the power struggle between the United States and China has seemingly receded into the background despite the US Congress’ bipartisan consensus in favor of a “pivot to Asia”. Meanwhile, major security questions in East Asia remain unanswered: Does Xi Jinping intend to unify Taiwan by force? Can Western countries deter China from resorting to military operations against Taiwan? What are the implications for the Japan-US security arrangements?
To answer these questions, one must delve deeper into recent diplomatic and security policies announced by Japan, the biggest US ally in East Asia. In this lecture, the National Security Strategy released in December 2022 will be examined and a future security situation in East Asia with a focus on cognitive warfare will be discussed.
Profile
Koichiro Matsumoto (M.A. Oxon), Director of Research at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, was formerly Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan under three Prime Ministers (Shinzo Abe, Yoshihide Suga and Fumio Kishida). He was also Counselor at Japan’s National Security Secretariat (NSS) when Japan started advocating the concept of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. He has also worked on the G7 Summit, the OECD as well as non-proliferation and nuclear cooperation issues in his diplomatic career that extends more than 25 years. He read Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford.
