“Zeitenwende” in Germany and Japan? Continuity and change in Germany and Japan's foreign policy after the Cold War

For a long time, Germany and Japan have been characterized as Civilian Powers. Civilian Power refers to international actors who prefer non-military methods to military methods as a means of resolving international disputes. However, Germany and Japan are now shifting their foreign and security policies against the backdrop of recent upheavals in world politics, in particular the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. How, then, have the foreign policies of Germany and Japan shifted, respectively? How similar and how different are the developments in Germany and Japan? This lecture provided an overview of the trajectories of German and Japanese foreign and security policy from a historical perspective and examines the implications of recent shifts.

 

 

Takumi Itabashi is a Professor of International History at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo. He received Ph.D. from Hokkaido University in 2008. Before joining the University of Tokyo, he taught at Seikei University. He also spent two years as visiting scholar at the University of Cologne. His research topics include German history, contemporary German politics and the history of European integration. He is the author of Overcoming the Division 1989-1990: The Challenge of West German Diplomacy Over Reunification (Tokyo: Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2022) (in Japanese). The full list of publications can be found at the following link. https://researchmap.jp/read0143167/?lang=en

 

Moderator:

Phillip Lipscy, Director, Centre for the Study of Global Japan, Munk School

 

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Global Japan, University of Toronto. Co-sponsored by the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, University of Toronto.