Ryoko Nakano is Professor and Chair in the Faculty of International Studies at Kanazawa University, Japan. She was formerly Assistant Professor at the Department of Japanese Studies, National University of Singapore. Her current research interests include memory of war and heritage politics in East Asia. She published articles on global norm diffusion, heritage politics, and Japanese perspectives of international relations, one of the latest is “A Failure of Global Documentary Heritage? UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ and Heritage Dissonance in East Asia,” Contemporary Politics, 24:4 (2018): 481-496. Her single-authored book, Beyond the Western Liberal Order: Yanaihara Tadao and Empire as Society (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), uses the political thought of Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961), the most prominent Japanese colonial studies expert, as a platform which to examine the global challenges of the liberal international order.
What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special ... more What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special issue,Mobilizing Nostalgia in Asia, assesses the mobilization of nostalgia in the changing international order, and within individuated socioeconomic and cultural spheres. Its four articles examine the political and social dynamics that evoke, utilize, amend, and manipulate nostalgia for collective present needs and demands. This Introduction connects the issue's four contributions to three interconnected themes: the power of nostalgia, the plurality of nostalgia, and nostalgia as a process of creation.
International Affairs, Volume 99, Issue 4, July 2023, Pages 1421–1438, , 2023
This article examines Japan's security and foreign policy as an example of how a major power enga... more This article examines Japan's security and foreign policy as an example of how a major power engages in the liberal international order (LIO) and what this implies for the future of that order. Facing China's increased power and influence in the past two decades, Japan has made strategic adjustments in response to regional and global power transitions while developing an idea of a wider geopolitical landscape on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's initiative. However, this article argues that Japan's idea of an expanded regional scope and its vision of order were addressed decades earlier through ‘comprehensive security’ (sogo anzen hosho). While the country is an ally of the United States and clearly accepts the alliance as a key part of international order, Japan has its own ideas about international order; these accept much of the LIO but go beyond it, particularly in the articulation and operationalization of comprehensive security. By adopting the concept of norm localization, this article argues that Japan does not have the power to coerce others to take any actions to defend the current international order, but it can adapt and tweak the dominant LIO norms, principles and practices to build congruence with local norms of sovereignty and territorial integrity embedded in its own region. To create a broader consensus in favour of sustaining the LIO, major powers like Japan can approach the sceptics by presenting an alternative to either total rejection or total acceptance of the LIO norms.
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China has incr... more Since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China has increasingly engaged in UNESCO's Silk Roads project. China's emphasis on its western routes signals its strategic interest in the reconstruction of its historical connections that matches China's global networking in Eurasia, the Middle East, and Europe. However, whether China will successfully reformulate the international visions of the past, present, and future for its benefit remains an open question. This article focuses on the responses from Japan and South Korea, both of which hold critical positions as the owners of eastern Silk Roads heritage and the funders of UNESCO's Silk Roads heritage studies and World Heritage nomination assistance. Extending the conceptual framework of memory infrastructure to the study of heritage politics and diplomacy highlights the competitive aspect of a transnational heritage project in shaping and reshaping historical and contemporary geographical landscapes.
What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special ... more What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special issue, Mobilizing Nostalgia in Asia, assesses the mobilization of nostalgia in the changing international order, and within individuated socioeconomic and cultural spheres. Its four articles examine the political and social dynamics that evoke, utilize, amend, and manipulate nostalgia for collective present needs and demands. This Introduction outlines three interlinked themes about mobilizing nostalgia: the power of nostalgia, the plurality of nostalgia, and nostalgia as a process of creation. It also explains how the issue's four contributions relate to these themes.
The recent development of heritage industries and national heritage promotions in non-Western cou... more The recent development of heritage industries and national heritage promotions in non-Western countries opens a new space for international cooperation and competition in ways that directly link to the power-political relations between states. What motivates these countries to accelerate their efforts to promote their cultural heritage internationally? Are such dynamics different from how cultural heritage is constructed and used in Western countries? This study conceptualises heritage as soft power in terms of culture, values and foreign policies, and by focusing on Japan and China, it examines the ways and motives of using cultural heritage as soft power. Although Japan and China are distinctly different countries, both share a remarkably similar approach to the construction and promotion of national heritage when participating in international heritage platforms. The present study’s findings suggest that the promotion of cultural heritage is not only a feature of nation-building and nation-branding but also feeds into global and regional competitions over the attainment of cultural and moral supremacy.
The language of shared heritage for humanity holds a central position within UNESCO's World Herit... more The language of shared heritage for humanity holds a central position within UNESCO's World Heritage. However, the “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution” as World Heritage is primarily Japan's national project for globalizing a glorious historical narrative of Meiji Japan. While this national nostalgia matches the contemporary political discourse of overcoming domestic and international challenges in twenty-first century Japan, it also encourages people to forget alternative perspectives related to Korean memories of forced labor, colonialism, and war. Ministry officials and cultural council members expressed concerns over possible critical reactions from South Korea, but the Japanese government accelerated its campaign for UNESCO's World Heritage designation and achieved its objective in 2015. Why did the Japanese government take this step despite the alarming voices within Japan? This paper uncovers the process in which Japan's industrial heritage was constructed and promoted as World Heritage. It points to the role of Japanese and Western heritage experts in a newly established committee outside the conventional procedure for Japan's World Heritage nomination and concludes that Japan's heritage diplomacy pushes alternative historical narratives into oblivion.
This study focuses on the policy response of the Abe government (2012–present) to UNESCO’s inscri... more This study focuses on the policy response of the Abe government (2012–present) to UNESCO’s inscription of the ‘Documents of Nanjing Massacre’ to argue that the historical revisionists’ perspective is central to the thinking of Japan’s UNESCO diplomacy. The UNESCO’s inscription heightened a sense of shame from the viewpoint of Japanese historical revisionists, leading the Japanese government to the unprecedented step of using its economic power to reform UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme and to prevent further inscription of historical documents that go against the view of the government. Because UNESCO constitutes the existing biographical narrative of Japan as a peace-loving, law-abiding country, the Japanese government remains careful to maintain a good-will posture to UNESCO. This article highlights the case of Japan to illustrate the importance of memory and identity change, as well as of the distinction between ontological security and the removal of threat to a historical narrative.
Albeit with little reference to Woodrow Wilson, Yanaihara Tadao, the Chair of Colonial Policy at ... more Albeit with little reference to Woodrow Wilson, Yanaihara Tadao, the Chair of Colonial Policy at Tokyo Imperial University in the 1920s and 1930s, and a pious Christian, adapted the core ideas of Wilsonian liberalism such as national self-determination, multilateralism, and democracy to the political and legal framework of imperial Japan. Yanaihara advocated the principle of autonomy for the Japanese empire to transform itself into the core of a liberal international order. He articulated that the combination of colonialism and unfettered capitalism had detrimental effects on the colonized and advocated for a Japanese empire that reflected the voice of its colonized people. However, having seen little improvement in the status of the colonized, Yanaihara increasingly regarded Japanese pan-Asianist ideas in the 1930s as a cover-up of Japanese expansionism. Almost abandoning his earlier ideas about empire as a multiethnic society, he criticized Japan's military venture as economically unprofitable, and policies toward Manchuria as stoking the rise of Chinese nationalism. He advocated for the normative framework advanced by the Mandate System of the League of Nations as a way toward the universalization of sovereignty, and protection of stateless populations. The failure of the Wilsonian moment in Japan forced Yanaihara out of Tokyo Imperial University but also strengthened his inclination towards liberal internationalism.
Heritage has entered the center stage of public diplomacy in East Asia. Competition to claim and ... more Heritage has entered the center stage of public diplomacy in East Asia. Competition to claim and interpret memories of World War II in East Asia has driven campaigns to list heritage items with UNESCO. State and non-state actors aim to use heritage listings to present a particular view of the war and related history to domestic and international audiences. This paper highlights the role of heritage soft power in East Asia’s memory contests by examining the promotion of dissonant modern heritage in UNESCO’s heritage programs. It conceptualizes heritage designation as a soft power resource in East Asia and presents a conceptual framework for understanding the hegemonic competition over the “memory regime” that emerged from the structural change in East Asia’s regional order. It then uses this framework to analyze the processes by which state and non-state actors promote and/or object to UNESCO recognition of their sites and documents as heritage of outstanding universal value or world significance. The elements of this process are illustrated with case studies of two very different pieces of heritage, Japan’s “Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution” and China’s “Documents of Nanjing Massacre,” which were enshrined as significant world heritage in 2015. While state and non-state actors in East Asia are increasingly recognizing the utility of heritage as a soft power resource for advancing specific historical narratives to an international audience, a backlash movement from civil society groups and governments in other countries prevents a purely unilateral interpretation. As a result, the utility of heritage soft power in this context must be significantly qualified.
UNESCO's ‘Memory of the World’ Programme promotes the preservation, universal access and public a... more UNESCO's ‘Memory of the World’ Programme promotes the preservation, universal access and public awareness of the world's significant documents as the common heritage of all humankind. The inscription of the ‘Documents of Nanjing Massacre’ into the ‘Memory of the World’ Register in 2015 reflects an increasingly globalised concern in the post–Cold War era over the remembrance of war and atrocity. Yet it has reignited the tension between Japan and China, resulting in strong pressure on UNESCO to reform its selection process for contested heritage. This paper addresses the limitations encountered by UNESCO in pursuing the promotion of global documentary heritage from an English School perspective. The 2015 controversy is relevant and indicative to an important question of International Relations on an inherent tension between the solidarist forces of promoting a normative agenda on human rights and common heritage and the pluralist pull of maintaining sovereignty and bringing heritage back to the hands of states.
Two-thirds of the global child population lives in countries affected by violent and high-intensi... more Two-thirds of the global child population lives in countries affected by violent and high-intensity conflict. International humanitarian law provides broad protection for children in the event of armed conflict. However, as the 2017 report of the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict stresses, the scale and severity of grave violations has increased. This paper addresses the central puzzle of why the existing legal and normative frameworks of child protection have achieved so little, in addressing the marginalisation and disempowerment of children in armed conflict. We argue that the contemporary application of R2P in protecting children will be limited unless at least two fundamental challenges are met: (a) taming power politics; and (b) squaring inherent contradictions between the global R2P norm and national and regional normative frameworks of child protection. We highlight the case of Japan to illustrate the limits of the contemporary application of R2P in protecting children.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Asia-Pacific is home to several major world economies, and is undergoing i... more ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Asia-Pacific is home to several major world economies, and is undergoing increasing social integration. However, the region is also the location for several longstanding inter-state disputes, a number of which involve an ascendant China. These dynamics present challenges to regional cooperation. We will organize a public lecture series by distinguished guest speakers on Japanese strategic thinking and perspectives in the Asia-Pacific (3 September & 30 October 2014), a public symposium (19 November 2014) and an academic workshop followed by a public forum (8-9 January 2015) that examine these issues. Specifically, these events will explore the limitations of current regional frameworks in addressing the tension between a need for enhancing cooperation and the demands for managing rising security concerns. Such an approach seeks to encourage an exchange of ideas that can spur thinking on possible responses to these issues.
Our project will center on the following themes:
1. Security Arrangements The security component of the project will examine the various security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific and explore various possibilities for managing them. Issues for examination include but are not limited to maritime territorial disputes, maritime security, nuclear proliferation, non-traditional security issues, and the effects of the rise of China on existing security arrangements in Asia. There will also be attention to current security arrangements such as the American-centered bi-lateral alliances and strategic partnership system, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the proposed ASEAN Security Community (ASC), and the Five Power Defense Arrangement (FPDA).
2. Economic Exchanges The project will highlight the evolving nature of characteristics of regional economic ties, including prospects and current obstacles to furthering collaboration. There will be a particular focus on cooperative economic arrangements in the region such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and the numerous bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs). The work program seeks to integrate as well the politics surrounding bilateral investment treaties and the currency arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative, which all contribute as well to the emerging regional architecture of the Asian international political economy. This section of the project also aims to look at the domestic political economies of the Asia-Pacific that ground regional economic relations and the key political actors—especially multinational firms—that are at the center of regional production networks and supply chains Our overall objective is to enhance public awareness and the engagement of a public dialogue on the trade, investment, and financial aspects of the institutional architecture surrounding Asian regional integration.
3. Political and Social Interactions A third element of the project explores the political interactions across the Asia-Pacific, both formal and informal. Discussions will center on dialogue frameworks such as the Trilateral Commission, Northeast Asia Trilateral, the East Asian Summit (EAS), the Six-Party Talks framework, ASEAN, and various ASEAN-centered discussion mechanisms like the ASEAN Plus Three (APT). This part of the program will also consider the relative dearth of organized transnational and societal networks across the Asia-Pacific. The project aspires to provide an overview of the cleavages in the Asia-Pacific alongside the strengths and limitations of regional cooperation across a variety of domains. The project seeks to engage experts from around the Asia-Pacific, including areas such as Japan, the United States, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, and Taiwan. In doing so, the project also aims to raise awareness and spur dialogue on these topics among the public in Singapore.
A territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has gained a high profile in Sino–Japanese ... more A territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has gained a high profile in Sino–Japanese relations. Since the 2012 escalation of the territorial dispute, there is no sign of any de-escalation despite economic interdependence, which previously helped ease the tension. Drawing on the constructivist understanding of threat perception and power transition theory, this article analyzes the way in which the deepening of threat perceptions associated with a perceived regional power transition prevents Japan and China from working beyond their subjective conceptions of justice associated with boarders and history. Since 2012, the Sino–Japanese territorial dispute has increasingly fitted into a larger picture of power-political conflict taking place in a power transition in which both Japan and China aim to return to ‘normality’ by propagating their territorial claims, strengthening their military capabilities, and strategic realignment. To that end, this article first introduces a theoretical framework on the centrality of threat perceptions in power transition. Second, it traces the ways in which Japan and China have developed a threat perception of each other since 1972. The third section deals with the escalation of the Sino–Japanese territorial dispute since 2010 and highlights the deepening of mutual suspicion and threat perception exemplified at the bilateral and multilateral levels. I conclude that the Sino–Japanese territorial debate entered a new stage of normative and power-political competition in earning international support for territorial claims in the East China Sea.
This paper aims to draw some contours of Japanese nostalgic Asianism in Kaiketsu Harimau (Great H... more This paper aims to draw some contours of Japanese nostalgic Asianism in Kaiketsu Harimau (Great Hero, Harimau, 1960-1961). Amongst the cultural products that engaged with the memories of the war, Kaiketsu Harimau, one of the earlier television drama produced in Japan, expressed Japan’s nostalgia for a Southeast Asia and Mongolia in which the Japanese were the saviours, heroically fighting against Western colonial authorities and Chinese villains. The reproduction of a Japanese hero in Asia was deeply related to the historical context of the 1950s and1960s. Faced with the challenges of the new international environment, this drama functioned as compensation for the loss of Japan’s national pride, and for an emasculated Japanese male identity within the U.S. hegemonic order. The re-imagination of Japan as a leader in Asia worked to a great extent in the settings of Southeast Asia and Mongolia, which seemed to have less contention with Japan over the memory of war than its closest neighbours, China and Korea.
... Localisation is defined here 'as the active construction (through discourse, framing, gr... more ... Localisation is defined here 'as the active construction (through discourse, framing, grafting and cultural selection) of foreign ideas by local actors, which results in the former developing significant congruence with local beliefs and practices'.29 According to Acharya, there are in ...
What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special ... more What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special issue,Mobilizing Nostalgia in Asia, assesses the mobilization of nostalgia in the changing international order, and within individuated socioeconomic and cultural spheres. Its four articles examine the political and social dynamics that evoke, utilize, amend, and manipulate nostalgia for collective present needs and demands. This Introduction connects the issue's four contributions to three interconnected themes: the power of nostalgia, the plurality of nostalgia, and nostalgia as a process of creation.
International Affairs, Volume 99, Issue 4, July 2023, Pages 1421–1438, , 2023
This article examines Japan's security and foreign policy as an example of how a major power enga... more This article examines Japan's security and foreign policy as an example of how a major power engages in the liberal international order (LIO) and what this implies for the future of that order. Facing China's increased power and influence in the past two decades, Japan has made strategic adjustments in response to regional and global power transitions while developing an idea of a wider geopolitical landscape on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's initiative. However, this article argues that Japan's idea of an expanded regional scope and its vision of order were addressed decades earlier through ‘comprehensive security’ (sogo anzen hosho). While the country is an ally of the United States and clearly accepts the alliance as a key part of international order, Japan has its own ideas about international order; these accept much of the LIO but go beyond it, particularly in the articulation and operationalization of comprehensive security. By adopting the concept of norm localization, this article argues that Japan does not have the power to coerce others to take any actions to defend the current international order, but it can adapt and tweak the dominant LIO norms, principles and practices to build congruence with local norms of sovereignty and territorial integrity embedded in its own region. To create a broader consensus in favour of sustaining the LIO, major powers like Japan can approach the sceptics by presenting an alternative to either total rejection or total acceptance of the LIO norms.
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China has incr... more Since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China has increasingly engaged in UNESCO's Silk Roads project. China's emphasis on its western routes signals its strategic interest in the reconstruction of its historical connections that matches China's global networking in Eurasia, the Middle East, and Europe. However, whether China will successfully reformulate the international visions of the past, present, and future for its benefit remains an open question. This article focuses on the responses from Japan and South Korea, both of which hold critical positions as the owners of eastern Silk Roads heritage and the funders of UNESCO's Silk Roads heritage studies and World Heritage nomination assistance. Extending the conceptual framework of memory infrastructure to the study of heritage politics and diplomacy highlights the competitive aspect of a transnational heritage project in shaping and reshaping historical and contemporary geographical landscapes.
What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special ... more What is the role of nostalgia in our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world? This special issue, Mobilizing Nostalgia in Asia, assesses the mobilization of nostalgia in the changing international order, and within individuated socioeconomic and cultural spheres. Its four articles examine the political and social dynamics that evoke, utilize, amend, and manipulate nostalgia for collective present needs and demands. This Introduction outlines three interlinked themes about mobilizing nostalgia: the power of nostalgia, the plurality of nostalgia, and nostalgia as a process of creation. It also explains how the issue's four contributions relate to these themes.
The recent development of heritage industries and national heritage promotions in non-Western cou... more The recent development of heritage industries and national heritage promotions in non-Western countries opens a new space for international cooperation and competition in ways that directly link to the power-political relations between states. What motivates these countries to accelerate their efforts to promote their cultural heritage internationally? Are such dynamics different from how cultural heritage is constructed and used in Western countries? This study conceptualises heritage as soft power in terms of culture, values and foreign policies, and by focusing on Japan and China, it examines the ways and motives of using cultural heritage as soft power. Although Japan and China are distinctly different countries, both share a remarkably similar approach to the construction and promotion of national heritage when participating in international heritage platforms. The present study’s findings suggest that the promotion of cultural heritage is not only a feature of nation-building and nation-branding but also feeds into global and regional competitions over the attainment of cultural and moral supremacy.
The language of shared heritage for humanity holds a central position within UNESCO's World Herit... more The language of shared heritage for humanity holds a central position within UNESCO's World Heritage. However, the “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution” as World Heritage is primarily Japan's national project for globalizing a glorious historical narrative of Meiji Japan. While this national nostalgia matches the contemporary political discourse of overcoming domestic and international challenges in twenty-first century Japan, it also encourages people to forget alternative perspectives related to Korean memories of forced labor, colonialism, and war. Ministry officials and cultural council members expressed concerns over possible critical reactions from South Korea, but the Japanese government accelerated its campaign for UNESCO's World Heritage designation and achieved its objective in 2015. Why did the Japanese government take this step despite the alarming voices within Japan? This paper uncovers the process in which Japan's industrial heritage was constructed and promoted as World Heritage. It points to the role of Japanese and Western heritage experts in a newly established committee outside the conventional procedure for Japan's World Heritage nomination and concludes that Japan's heritage diplomacy pushes alternative historical narratives into oblivion.
This study focuses on the policy response of the Abe government (2012–present) to UNESCO’s inscri... more This study focuses on the policy response of the Abe government (2012–present) to UNESCO’s inscription of the ‘Documents of Nanjing Massacre’ to argue that the historical revisionists’ perspective is central to the thinking of Japan’s UNESCO diplomacy. The UNESCO’s inscription heightened a sense of shame from the viewpoint of Japanese historical revisionists, leading the Japanese government to the unprecedented step of using its economic power to reform UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme and to prevent further inscription of historical documents that go against the view of the government. Because UNESCO constitutes the existing biographical narrative of Japan as a peace-loving, law-abiding country, the Japanese government remains careful to maintain a good-will posture to UNESCO. This article highlights the case of Japan to illustrate the importance of memory and identity change, as well as of the distinction between ontological security and the removal of threat to a historical narrative.
Albeit with little reference to Woodrow Wilson, Yanaihara Tadao, the Chair of Colonial Policy at ... more Albeit with little reference to Woodrow Wilson, Yanaihara Tadao, the Chair of Colonial Policy at Tokyo Imperial University in the 1920s and 1930s, and a pious Christian, adapted the core ideas of Wilsonian liberalism such as national self-determination, multilateralism, and democracy to the political and legal framework of imperial Japan. Yanaihara advocated the principle of autonomy for the Japanese empire to transform itself into the core of a liberal international order. He articulated that the combination of colonialism and unfettered capitalism had detrimental effects on the colonized and advocated for a Japanese empire that reflected the voice of its colonized people. However, having seen little improvement in the status of the colonized, Yanaihara increasingly regarded Japanese pan-Asianist ideas in the 1930s as a cover-up of Japanese expansionism. Almost abandoning his earlier ideas about empire as a multiethnic society, he criticized Japan's military venture as economically unprofitable, and policies toward Manchuria as stoking the rise of Chinese nationalism. He advocated for the normative framework advanced by the Mandate System of the League of Nations as a way toward the universalization of sovereignty, and protection of stateless populations. The failure of the Wilsonian moment in Japan forced Yanaihara out of Tokyo Imperial University but also strengthened his inclination towards liberal internationalism.
Heritage has entered the center stage of public diplomacy in East Asia. Competition to claim and ... more Heritage has entered the center stage of public diplomacy in East Asia. Competition to claim and interpret memories of World War II in East Asia has driven campaigns to list heritage items with UNESCO. State and non-state actors aim to use heritage listings to present a particular view of the war and related history to domestic and international audiences. This paper highlights the role of heritage soft power in East Asia’s memory contests by examining the promotion of dissonant modern heritage in UNESCO’s heritage programs. It conceptualizes heritage designation as a soft power resource in East Asia and presents a conceptual framework for understanding the hegemonic competition over the “memory regime” that emerged from the structural change in East Asia’s regional order. It then uses this framework to analyze the processes by which state and non-state actors promote and/or object to UNESCO recognition of their sites and documents as heritage of outstanding universal value or world significance. The elements of this process are illustrated with case studies of two very different pieces of heritage, Japan’s “Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution” and China’s “Documents of Nanjing Massacre,” which were enshrined as significant world heritage in 2015. While state and non-state actors in East Asia are increasingly recognizing the utility of heritage as a soft power resource for advancing specific historical narratives to an international audience, a backlash movement from civil society groups and governments in other countries prevents a purely unilateral interpretation. As a result, the utility of heritage soft power in this context must be significantly qualified.
UNESCO's ‘Memory of the World’ Programme promotes the preservation, universal access and public a... more UNESCO's ‘Memory of the World’ Programme promotes the preservation, universal access and public awareness of the world's significant documents as the common heritage of all humankind. The inscription of the ‘Documents of Nanjing Massacre’ into the ‘Memory of the World’ Register in 2015 reflects an increasingly globalised concern in the post–Cold War era over the remembrance of war and atrocity. Yet it has reignited the tension between Japan and China, resulting in strong pressure on UNESCO to reform its selection process for contested heritage. This paper addresses the limitations encountered by UNESCO in pursuing the promotion of global documentary heritage from an English School perspective. The 2015 controversy is relevant and indicative to an important question of International Relations on an inherent tension between the solidarist forces of promoting a normative agenda on human rights and common heritage and the pluralist pull of maintaining sovereignty and bringing heritage back to the hands of states.
Two-thirds of the global child population lives in countries affected by violent and high-intensi... more Two-thirds of the global child population lives in countries affected by violent and high-intensity conflict. International humanitarian law provides broad protection for children in the event of armed conflict. However, as the 2017 report of the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict stresses, the scale and severity of grave violations has increased. This paper addresses the central puzzle of why the existing legal and normative frameworks of child protection have achieved so little, in addressing the marginalisation and disempowerment of children in armed conflict. We argue that the contemporary application of R2P in protecting children will be limited unless at least two fundamental challenges are met: (a) taming power politics; and (b) squaring inherent contradictions between the global R2P norm and national and regional normative frameworks of child protection. We highlight the case of Japan to illustrate the limits of the contemporary application of R2P in protecting children.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Asia-Pacific is home to several major world economies, and is undergoing i... more ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Asia-Pacific is home to several major world economies, and is undergoing increasing social integration. However, the region is also the location for several longstanding inter-state disputes, a number of which involve an ascendant China. These dynamics present challenges to regional cooperation. We will organize a public lecture series by distinguished guest speakers on Japanese strategic thinking and perspectives in the Asia-Pacific (3 September & 30 October 2014), a public symposium (19 November 2014) and an academic workshop followed by a public forum (8-9 January 2015) that examine these issues. Specifically, these events will explore the limitations of current regional frameworks in addressing the tension between a need for enhancing cooperation and the demands for managing rising security concerns. Such an approach seeks to encourage an exchange of ideas that can spur thinking on possible responses to these issues.
Our project will center on the following themes:
1. Security Arrangements The security component of the project will examine the various security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific and explore various possibilities for managing them. Issues for examination include but are not limited to maritime territorial disputes, maritime security, nuclear proliferation, non-traditional security issues, and the effects of the rise of China on existing security arrangements in Asia. There will also be attention to current security arrangements such as the American-centered bi-lateral alliances and strategic partnership system, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the proposed ASEAN Security Community (ASC), and the Five Power Defense Arrangement (FPDA).
2. Economic Exchanges The project will highlight the evolving nature of characteristics of regional economic ties, including prospects and current obstacles to furthering collaboration. There will be a particular focus on cooperative economic arrangements in the region such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and the numerous bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs). The work program seeks to integrate as well the politics surrounding bilateral investment treaties and the currency arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative, which all contribute as well to the emerging regional architecture of the Asian international political economy. This section of the project also aims to look at the domestic political economies of the Asia-Pacific that ground regional economic relations and the key political actors—especially multinational firms—that are at the center of regional production networks and supply chains Our overall objective is to enhance public awareness and the engagement of a public dialogue on the trade, investment, and financial aspects of the institutional architecture surrounding Asian regional integration.
3. Political and Social Interactions A third element of the project explores the political interactions across the Asia-Pacific, both formal and informal. Discussions will center on dialogue frameworks such as the Trilateral Commission, Northeast Asia Trilateral, the East Asian Summit (EAS), the Six-Party Talks framework, ASEAN, and various ASEAN-centered discussion mechanisms like the ASEAN Plus Three (APT). This part of the program will also consider the relative dearth of organized transnational and societal networks across the Asia-Pacific. The project aspires to provide an overview of the cleavages in the Asia-Pacific alongside the strengths and limitations of regional cooperation across a variety of domains. The project seeks to engage experts from around the Asia-Pacific, including areas such as Japan, the United States, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, and Taiwan. In doing so, the project also aims to raise awareness and spur dialogue on these topics among the public in Singapore.
A territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has gained a high profile in Sino–Japanese ... more A territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has gained a high profile in Sino–Japanese relations. Since the 2012 escalation of the territorial dispute, there is no sign of any de-escalation despite economic interdependence, which previously helped ease the tension. Drawing on the constructivist understanding of threat perception and power transition theory, this article analyzes the way in which the deepening of threat perceptions associated with a perceived regional power transition prevents Japan and China from working beyond their subjective conceptions of justice associated with boarders and history. Since 2012, the Sino–Japanese territorial dispute has increasingly fitted into a larger picture of power-political conflict taking place in a power transition in which both Japan and China aim to return to ‘normality’ by propagating their territorial claims, strengthening their military capabilities, and strategic realignment. To that end, this article first introduces a theoretical framework on the centrality of threat perceptions in power transition. Second, it traces the ways in which Japan and China have developed a threat perception of each other since 1972. The third section deals with the escalation of the Sino–Japanese territorial dispute since 2010 and highlights the deepening of mutual suspicion and threat perception exemplified at the bilateral and multilateral levels. I conclude that the Sino–Japanese territorial debate entered a new stage of normative and power-political competition in earning international support for territorial claims in the East China Sea.
This paper aims to draw some contours of Japanese nostalgic Asianism in Kaiketsu Harimau (Great H... more This paper aims to draw some contours of Japanese nostalgic Asianism in Kaiketsu Harimau (Great Hero, Harimau, 1960-1961). Amongst the cultural products that engaged with the memories of the war, Kaiketsu Harimau, one of the earlier television drama produced in Japan, expressed Japan’s nostalgia for a Southeast Asia and Mongolia in which the Japanese were the saviours, heroically fighting against Western colonial authorities and Chinese villains. The reproduction of a Japanese hero in Asia was deeply related to the historical context of the 1950s and1960s. Faced with the challenges of the new international environment, this drama functioned as compensation for the loss of Japan’s national pride, and for an emasculated Japanese male identity within the U.S. hegemonic order. The re-imagination of Japan as a leader in Asia worked to a great extent in the settings of Southeast Asia and Mongolia, which seemed to have less contention with Japan over the memory of war than its closest neighbours, China and Korea.
... Localisation is defined here 'as the active construction (through discourse, framing, gr... more ... Localisation is defined here 'as the active construction (through discourse, framing, grafting and cultural selection) of foreign ideas by local actors, which results in the former developing significant congruence with local beliefs and practices'.29 According to Acharya, there are in ...
The recent development of heritage industries and national heritage promotions in non-Western cou... more The recent development of heritage industries and national heritage promotions in non-Western countries opens a new space for international cooperation and competition in ways that directly link to the powerpolitical relations between states. What motivates these countries to accelerate their efforts to promote their cultural heritage internationally? Are such dynamics different from how cultural heritage is constructed and used in Western countries? This study conceptualises heritage as soft power in terms of culture, values and foreign policies, and by focusing on Japan and China, it examines the ways and motives of using cultural heritage as soft power. Although Japan and China are distinctly different countries, both share a remarkably similar approach to the construction and promotion of national heritage when participating in international heritage platforms. The present study’s findings suggest that the promotion of cultural heritage is not only a feature of nation-building and nation-branding but also feeds into global and regional competitions over the attainment of cultural and moral supremacy.
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Papers by Ryoko Nakano
the war and related history to domestic and international audiences. This paper highlights the role of heritage soft power in East Asia’s memory contests by examining the promotion of dissonant
modern heritage in UNESCO’s heritage programs. It conceptualizes heritage designation as a soft power resource in East Asia and presents a conceptual framework for understanding the hegemonic competition over the “memory regime” that emerged from the structural change in
East Asia’s regional order. It then uses this framework to analyze the processes by which state and non-state actors promote and/or object to UNESCO recognition of their sites and documents as heritage of outstanding universal value or world significance. The elements of this process are illustrated with case studies of two very different pieces of heritage, Japan’s “Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution” and China’s “Documents of Nanjing Massacre,” which were enshrined as significant world heritage in 2015. While state and non-state actors in East Asia are increasingly recognizing the utility of heritage as a soft power resource for advancing specific historical narratives to an international audience, a backlash movement from civil society groups and governments in other countries prevents a purely unilateral interpretation. As a result, the utility of heritage soft power in this context must be significantly qualified.
The Asia-Pacific is home to several major world economies, and is undergoing increasing social integration. However, the region is also the location for several longstanding inter-state disputes, a number of which involve an ascendant China. These dynamics present challenges to regional cooperation. We will organize a public lecture series by distinguished guest speakers on Japanese strategic thinking and perspectives in the Asia-Pacific (3 September & 30 October 2014), a public symposium (19 November 2014) and an academic workshop followed by a public forum (8-9 January 2015) that examine these issues. Specifically, these events will explore the limitations of current regional frameworks in addressing the tension between a need for enhancing cooperation and the demands for managing rising security concerns. Such an approach seeks to encourage an exchange of ideas that can spur thinking on possible responses to these issues.
Our project will center on the following themes:
1. Security Arrangements
The security component of the project will examine the various security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific and explore various possibilities for managing them. Issues for examination include but are not limited to maritime territorial disputes, maritime security, nuclear proliferation, non-traditional security issues, and the effects of the rise of China on existing security arrangements in Asia. There will also be attention to current security arrangements such as the American-centered bi-lateral alliances and strategic partnership system, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the proposed ASEAN Security Community (ASC), and the Five Power Defense Arrangement (FPDA).
2. Economic Exchanges
The project will highlight the evolving nature of characteristics of regional economic ties, including prospects and current obstacles to furthering collaboration. There will be a particular focus on cooperative economic arrangements in the region such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and the numerous bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs). The work program seeks to integrate as well the politics surrounding bilateral investment treaties and the currency arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative, which all contribute as well to the emerging regional architecture of the Asian international political economy. This section of the project also aims to look at the domestic political economies of the Asia-Pacific that ground regional economic relations and the key political actors—especially multinational firms—that are at the center of regional production networks and supply chains Our overall objective is to enhance public awareness and the engagement of a public dialogue on the trade, investment, and financial aspects of the institutional architecture surrounding Asian regional integration.
3. Political and Social Interactions
A third element of the project explores the political interactions across the Asia-Pacific, both formal and informal. Discussions will center on dialogue frameworks such as the Trilateral Commission, Northeast Asia Trilateral, the East Asian Summit (EAS), the Six-Party Talks framework, ASEAN, and various ASEAN-centered discussion mechanisms like the ASEAN Plus Three (APT). This part of the program will also consider the relative dearth of organized transnational and societal networks across the Asia-Pacific.
The project aspires to provide an overview of the cleavages in the Asia-Pacific alongside the strengths and limitations of regional cooperation across a variety of domains. The project seeks to engage experts from around the Asia-Pacific, including areas such as Japan, the United States, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, and Taiwan. In doing so, the project also aims to raise awareness and spur dialogue on these topics among the public in Singapore.
the war and related history to domestic and international audiences. This paper highlights the role of heritage soft power in East Asia’s memory contests by examining the promotion of dissonant
modern heritage in UNESCO’s heritage programs. It conceptualizes heritage designation as a soft power resource in East Asia and presents a conceptual framework for understanding the hegemonic competition over the “memory regime” that emerged from the structural change in
East Asia’s regional order. It then uses this framework to analyze the processes by which state and non-state actors promote and/or object to UNESCO recognition of their sites and documents as heritage of outstanding universal value or world significance. The elements of this process are illustrated with case studies of two very different pieces of heritage, Japan’s “Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution” and China’s “Documents of Nanjing Massacre,” which were enshrined as significant world heritage in 2015. While state and non-state actors in East Asia are increasingly recognizing the utility of heritage as a soft power resource for advancing specific historical narratives to an international audience, a backlash movement from civil society groups and governments in other countries prevents a purely unilateral interpretation. As a result, the utility of heritage soft power in this context must be significantly qualified.
The Asia-Pacific is home to several major world economies, and is undergoing increasing social integration. However, the region is also the location for several longstanding inter-state disputes, a number of which involve an ascendant China. These dynamics present challenges to regional cooperation. We will organize a public lecture series by distinguished guest speakers on Japanese strategic thinking and perspectives in the Asia-Pacific (3 September & 30 October 2014), a public symposium (19 November 2014) and an academic workshop followed by a public forum (8-9 January 2015) that examine these issues. Specifically, these events will explore the limitations of current regional frameworks in addressing the tension between a need for enhancing cooperation and the demands for managing rising security concerns. Such an approach seeks to encourage an exchange of ideas that can spur thinking on possible responses to these issues.
Our project will center on the following themes:
1. Security Arrangements
The security component of the project will examine the various security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific and explore various possibilities for managing them. Issues for examination include but are not limited to maritime territorial disputes, maritime security, nuclear proliferation, non-traditional security issues, and the effects of the rise of China on existing security arrangements in Asia. There will also be attention to current security arrangements such as the American-centered bi-lateral alliances and strategic partnership system, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the proposed ASEAN Security Community (ASC), and the Five Power Defense Arrangement (FPDA).
2. Economic Exchanges
The project will highlight the evolving nature of characteristics of regional economic ties, including prospects and current obstacles to furthering collaboration. There will be a particular focus on cooperative economic arrangements in the region such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and the numerous bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs). The work program seeks to integrate as well the politics surrounding bilateral investment treaties and the currency arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative, which all contribute as well to the emerging regional architecture of the Asian international political economy. This section of the project also aims to look at the domestic political economies of the Asia-Pacific that ground regional economic relations and the key political actors—especially multinational firms—that are at the center of regional production networks and supply chains Our overall objective is to enhance public awareness and the engagement of a public dialogue on the trade, investment, and financial aspects of the institutional architecture surrounding Asian regional integration.
3. Political and Social Interactions
A third element of the project explores the political interactions across the Asia-Pacific, both formal and informal. Discussions will center on dialogue frameworks such as the Trilateral Commission, Northeast Asia Trilateral, the East Asian Summit (EAS), the Six-Party Talks framework, ASEAN, and various ASEAN-centered discussion mechanisms like the ASEAN Plus Three (APT). This part of the program will also consider the relative dearth of organized transnational and societal networks across the Asia-Pacific.
The project aspires to provide an overview of the cleavages in the Asia-Pacific alongside the strengths and limitations of regional cooperation across a variety of domains. The project seeks to engage experts from around the Asia-Pacific, including areas such as Japan, the United States, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, and Taiwan. In doing so, the project also aims to raise awareness and spur dialogue on these topics among the public in Singapore.