Phillip Lipscy

Director, Centre for the Study of Global Japan

Chair in Japanese Politics and Global Affairs

Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Professor, Department of Political Science

phillip.lipscy@utoronto.ca

www.lipscy.org/

Trinity College
1 Devonshire Place
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3K7 Canada

Current affiliations

Director, Centre for the Study of Global Japan, Munk School
Chair in Japanese Politics and Global Affairs, University of Toronto
Professor, Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo

Biography

Main Bio

Phillip Y. Lipscy is professor of political science at the University of Toronto, where he is also Chair in Japanese Politics and Global Affairs and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. In addition, he is cross-appointed as professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo.

His research addresses substantive topics such as international cooperation, international organizations, the politics of energy and climate change, international relations of East Asia, and the politics of financial crises. He has also published extensively on Japanese politics and foreign policy. Lipscy’s book from Cambridge University Press, Renegotiating the World Order: Institutional Change in International Relations, examines how countries seek greater international influence by reforming or creating international organizations.

Before arriving at the University of Toronto, Lipscy was assistant professor of political science at Stanford University. Lipscy obtained his Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University. He received his M.A. in international policy studies and B.A. in economics and political science at Stanford University. He is also affiliated with the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University, Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and the U.S.-Japan Council.

Please see his website for more information: www.lipscy.org

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Publications and Working Papers

The Institutional Politics of Energy and Climate Change, book manuscript (Introduction) Renegotiating the World Order: Institutional Change in International Relations. 2017.
Cambridge University Press.
Volumes
The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms (ed. with Takeo Hoshi). 2021. Cambridge University Press.
Japan under the DPJ: The Politics of Transition and Governance (ed. with Kenji Kushida). 2013. Shorenstein APARC and Brookings Institution Press.

Academic Journal Articles

“The Politics of International Testing” (with Rie Kijima) 2024. The Review of International Organizations. 19: 1-31.
“Competition and Regime Complex Architecture: Authority Relations and Differentiation in International Education.” (with Rie Kijima) 2023. Review of International Political Economy. 30 (6): 2150-2177.
“Japan: The Harbinger State.” 2023. Japanese Journal of Political Science 24 (1): 80-97. “Why Nations Lead or Lag in Energy Transitions” (with Jonas Meckling, Jared J. Finnegan,
& Florence Metz) 2022. Science 378 (6615): 31-33.
“Workshops Without Borders: Building an Online Community of Japan Scholars.” (with Amy Catalinac, Charles Crabtree, Christina L. Davis, Shinju Fujihira, Yusaku Horiuchi, Frances McCall Rosenbluth, Daniel M. Smith) 2022. PS: Political Science & Politics 55(3): 555-557.
“Japan Transformed? The Foreign Policy Legacy of the Abe Government.” (with Adam P. Liff) 2022. Journal of Japanese Studies 48 (1): 123-147.
“COVID-19 and the Politics of Crisis.” 2020. International Organization 74 (S1): E98-E127. “How Do States Renegotiate International Institutions? Japan’s Renegotiation Diplomacy
Since World War II.” 2020. Global Policy 11 (S3): 17-27.
“The IMF as a Biased Global Insurance Mechanism: Asymmetrical Moral Hazard, Reserve Accumulation, and Financial Crises” (with Haillie Lee) 2019. International Organization 73 (1): 35-64.
“Japan’s Opportunity to Lead” (with Daniel Aldrich and Mary McCarthy). 2019. Nature Climate Change 9: 492.
“Democracy and Financial Crisis” 2018. International Organization 72 (4): 937-968. “The Politics of Energy and Climate Change in Japan under Abe: Abenergynomics” (with
Trevor Incerti) 2018, Asian Survey 58 (4): 607-634.
“Explaining Institutional Change: Policy Areas, Outside Options, and the Bretton Woods
Institutions.” 2015. American Journal of Political Science 59 (2): 341-356.
“The Politics of Energy.” (with Llewelyn Hughes). 2013. Annual Review of Political Science
16 (1): 449-469.
“The Politics of Financial Crisis Response in Japan and the United States” (with Hirofumi
Takinami). 2013. Japanese Journal of Political Science 14 (3): 321-353.
“Energy Efficiency in the Japanese Transport Sector.” 2013. (with Lee Schipper). Energy
Policy. 56 (May): 248-258.
“The Fukushima Disaster and Japan’s Nuclear Plant Vulnerability in Comparative Perspective.” (with Kenji Kushida and Trevor Incerti). 2013. Environmental Science and Technology 47 (May): 6082-6088 (cover article).
“A Casualty of Political Transformation? The Politics of Japanese Energy Efficiency in the Transportation Sector.” 2012. Journal of East Asian Studies 12 (3): 409-440.
“Japan under the DPJ: The Paradox of Political Change without Policy Change” (with Ethan Scheiner). 2012. Journal of East Asian Studies 12 (3): 311-322.
“Japan's Asian Monetary Fund Proposal.” 2003. Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs 3 (Spring): 93-104.
Articles under Revision
“Producer Power or Energy Policy? The Effect of Electoral Systems on Prices” Revise & Resubmit, British Journal of Political Science

Book Chapters

“Japan’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 2023. In Robert J. Pekkanen, Steven R. Reed, Daniel M. Smith eds. Japan Decides 2021: The Japanese General Election. Palgrave Macmillan. pg. 239-254.
“The Political Economy of the Abe Government.” (with Takeo Hoshi) 2021. In Takeo Hoshi and Phillip Y. Lipscy eds. The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms. Cambridge University Press. pg. 3-40.
“The Politics of Energy and Climate Change in Japan under the Abe Government.” (with Trevor Incerti) 2021. In Takeo Hoshi and Phillip Y. Lipscy eds. The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms. Cambridge University Press. pg. 445-476.
“Japan and International Organizations.” (with Nobuhiko Tamaki) 2021. In Robert Pekkanen and Saadia Pekkanen eds. Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics. Oxford University Press. pg. 514-534.
“International Assessments and Education Policy: Evidence from an Elite Survey.” (with Rie Kijima) 2020. In Judith Kelley and Beth Simmons eds. The Power of Global Performance Indicators. Cambridge University Press. pg. 174-202.
“Reformist Status Quo Power: Japan’s Approach toward International Organizations.” 2020. In G. John Ikenberry and Yoichi Funabashi eds. The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism: Japan and the World Order, Brookings Institution Press.
“The Energy Politics of Japan.” (with Trevor Incerti). 2020. In Kathleen J. Hancock and Juliann Emmons Allison eds. Oxford Handbook on Energy Politics. Oxford University Press.
“Were Japan’s Nuclear Plants Uniquely Vulnerable?” (with Kenji E. Kushida and Trevor Incerti). 2016. In Edward Blandford and Scott D. Sagan eds., Learning from Fukushima: Improving Nuclear Safety and Security after Accidents, Stanford University Press.
“DPJ Election Strategy: The Dilemma of Landslide Victory.” 2016. In Yoichi Funabashi and Koichi eds., The Democratic Party of Japan in Power: Challenges and Failures. Routledge.
“福島原発事故の定量分析:国際比較の視点から (Quantitative Analysis of the Fukushima Power Plant Accident: An International Perspective),” 2016, in Yutaka Tsujinaka ed., 東日本大震災学術調査:「政治過程と政策」(Scientific Investigation of the Great East Japan Earthquake). Toyo Keizai Shinposha.
“The Rise and Fall of the Democratic Party of Japan.” (with Kenji Kushida). 2013. In Kenji Kushida and Phillip Lipscy eds. Japan Under the DPJ: The Politics of Transition and Governance. Shorenstein APARC/Brookings Institution Press.
“選挙戦略:大勝と惨敗を生んだジレンマ (Electoral Strategy: The Dilemma of Landslide Victories and Defeats).” 2013. In Koichi Nakano ed. 民主党政権失敗の検証 - 日本政治は何を活かすか (Analysis and Lessons from the Government of the Democratic Party of Japan). Tokyo, Japan: Chuo Koron.
“Japan's Shifting Role in International Organizations.” 2008. In Masaru Kohno and Frances Rosenbluth, eds. Japan and the World: Japan's Contemporary Geopolitical Challenges. New Haven: Yale University Council on East Asian Studies, 2008.

Policy Articles

“Can Japan Be a Climate Change Leader?” (with Pinar Temocin). 2023. The Diplomat. October 1.
“Japan as the Future: The Harbinger’s Curse.” 2023. Tokyo Review. July 25.
“Japan.” 2023. In Stewart Patrick ed., UN Security Council Reform: What the World Thinks.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. June 28.
“The US and Japan Must Lead on Climate Cooperation” (with Mary McCarthy). 2021. The Diplomat. April 19.
“Japan and International Organizations in the Liberal International Order.” 2020. In Yves Tiberghien ed., Japan’s Leadership in the Liberal International Order: Impact and Policy Opportunities for Partners.
“It’s Too Soon to Call Coronavirus Winners and Losers.” 2020. Foreign Policy, May 12. “The Trump Tower Peace Theory: Why Donald Trump's Real Estate Holdings Abroad are So
Dangerous for Americans at Home.” 2017. Foreign Policy, June 22. “Trump and Abe are Natural Allies,” The Diplomat, 2/9/2017.
“Who's Afraid of the AIIB?: Why the United States Should Support China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.” 2015. Foreign Affairs, May 7.
“The Land of the Sinking Sun: Is Japan’s Military Weakness Putting America in Danger?” (with Philippe de Koning). 2013. Foreign Policy. July 30.
“ナショナリズムではなく科学進歩で国をまとめよ(安倍内閣への提言) (Recommendations on the Foreign Policy of the Abe Government).” 2013. 外交 (Diplomacy) 18 (March), 45-50.
“US-Japan Cooperation on the Reform of International Organizations.” 2011. JCIE US- Japan Papers, December.
Toward a Theory of Intelligence (with Gregory Treverton, Seth Jones, and Steve Boraz). 2006. RAND: Santa Monica

Working Papers

“Institutional Racism in International Relations” (with Jiajia Zhou). Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Association, 2022.
“The Political Economy of International Reserve Accumulation: Self-Insurance or Mercantilism?” (with Haillie Lee), paper presented at East Asian Financial Governance Workshop, Boston University, 2018
“Democracy and the Volatility of Economic Growth.” Paper presented at the 2018 Pacific International Politics Conference, Hong Kong.
“The Open Access International Order.” (with Adam Liff) Paper presented at annual meeting of International Studies Association, Toronto, 2019.
“The Institutional Sources of Energy Transitions: From the Oil Crises to Climate Policy,” (with Jared Finnegan, Jonas Mecking, Florence Metz), paper presented at the Workshop on the Comparative Politics of Climate Change Policy, Stanford University, 2020.
“The Electoral Politics of Energy”
“The Dark Side of Democratic Advantage: International Crises and Secret Agreements” (with Yevgeniy Kirpichevsky).
“Congressional Preferences and the Structure of Delegation: Reassessing the Effect of Divided Government on U.S. Trade Policy” (with Yevgeniy Kirpichevsky).
“Resilience or Retrenchment?: Japanese Security in the Era of Fiscal Austerity” (with Philippe de Koning).