Identity Change and Foreign Policy: Japan and its 'Others' - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1138094986 ISBN 13: 9781138094987

Publisher: Routledge, 2017

Synopsis

Identity has become an explicit focus of International Relations theory in the past two to three decades, with one case attracting and puzzling many early identity scholars: Japan. These constructivist scholars typically ascribed Japan a ‘pacifist’ or ‘antimilitarist’ identity – an identity which they believed was constructed through the adherence to ‘peaceful norms’ and ‘antimilitarist culture’. Due to the alleged resilience of such adherences, little change in Japan’s identity and its international relations was predicted.

However, in recent years, Japan’s foreign and security policies have begun to change, in spite of these seemingly stable norms and culture. This book seeks to address these changes through a pioneering engagement with recent developments in identity theory. In particular, most chapters theorize identity as a product of processes of differentiation. Through detailed case analysis, they argue that Japan’s identity is produced and reproduced, but also transformed, through the drawing of boundaries between ‘self’ and ‘other’. In particular, they stress the role of emotions and identity entrepreneurs as catalysts for identity change. With the current balance between resilience and change, contributors emphasize that more drastic foreign and security policy transformations might loom just beyond the horizon. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Pacific Review.

About this title

About the Author

Linus Hagström is East Asia Programme Director at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and Professor of Political Science at the Swedish Defence University, Stockholm, Sweden. The author of Japan’s China Policy: A Relational Power Analysis (Routledge, 2005), he recently published articles in the European Journal of International Relations and The Pacific Review.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138094986
• ISBN 13: 9781138094987
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 178
• Editor: Hagstrom Linus