Joseph Nye: A Foreigner Who Visited the Juku

2018/10/11

Any student who has seriously studied international politics will surely know the name Joseph Nye. Not only that, anyone who studies even a little about Japan's foreign policy—particularly the Japan-U.S. alliance at the core of Japan's security policy—is bound to encounter his name. Joseph S. Nye Jr., a leading American international political scientist who has also been deeply involved in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy, was born in New Jersey in 1937. After graduating from Princeton University in 1958, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and continued his studies at Oxford University. The Rhodes Scholarship is a prestigious program established with the vast wealth of Cecil Rhodes, a 19th-century British imperialist and former Prime Minister, to provide outstanding students from countries like the United States and Germany with the opportunity to study in the UK for several years. The list of past scholars includes many influential Americans, such as Senator William Fulbright, who later established the exchange program for students to the U.S., and President Bill Clinton, also from Arkansas.

After obtaining his PhD from Harvard University and entering academic life, he became internationally renowned following the 1977 publication of "Power and Interdependence," co-authored with Robert Keohane. This book, which academically refined the concept of "interdependence" and used it as a key to macroscopically reconstruct international political theory, quickly became a must-read in the field and was widely read throughout the English-speaking world. I clearly remember ordering the original book—which was very expensive for a student at the time—and reading it intently just as I was starting my life as a graduate student.

Perhaps even better known among Japanese students is "Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History." This book has been revised and reprinted almost every year, and since the 8th edition in 2010, David A. Welch has joined as a co-author. It is highly regarded as an excellent textbook that always incorporates the latest developments of the era. Because an excellent Japanese translation was published early on, it is likely read very widely among Japanese students.

In addition, during the 1980s when the confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over strategic nuclear weapons was prominent, he published "Nuclear Ethics," which directly addressed the ethical issues surrounding nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence. He also introduced the concept of "soft power"—a term now frequently used (and sometimes overused) by Japanese people—to counter the then-popular theory of American decline. As a leading figure in the American international political science community, he has always actively and directly voiced his positions on the central issues of each era.

In the United States, it is traditional for researchers to often join the administration and be active in the practical world. Nye is a representative figure in this sense as well. While teaching at Harvard University's Kennedy School, he served as Deputy Under Secretary of State (1977–1979) in the Carter administration, and as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (1993–1994) and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (1994–1995) in the Clinton administration. Well known among Japanese people is the so-called "Nye Initiative," which compiled the "East Asia Strategy Report" released in 1995 during his time as Assistant Secretary of Defense. This redefined and rebuilt the Japan-U.S. alliance, which had become unstable due to economic friction after the Cold War, and established the basic policy for the medium- to long-term Japan-U.S. alliance and U.S. East Asian policy. This was an important policy-making effort that led to the agreement on the so-called New Guidelines between the Japanese and U.S. governments in 1997.

As mentioned above, Nye has deep ties with successive Democratic administrations, but in 2000 and 2007, he also joined Republican security experts like Richard Armitage in creating the "Armitage Report," a bipartisan set of policy recommendations for Japan. As this shows, he is a figure who commands authority across party lines in the U.S. foreign and security policy community. Because he is a giant in the American international political science community and has been deeply involved in the formation of policy toward Japan, he was even rumored as a candidate for Ambassador to Japan when the Obama administration took office.

Nye visited Keio on October 20, 2010, during the Obama administration, to attend the honorary doctorate ceremony and give a subsequent commemorative lecture. I was asked by Ryosei Kokubun, Dean of the Faculty of Law, to moderate the lecture and assist with the preparations, so I went to meet Professor Nye at another lecture venue in a Tokyo hotel that day. It was our first meeting, but he had a friendly American personality and there were no difficulties. As a result, our conversation continued in the car heading to Mita, and I almost forgot the arrangement to contact the staff when the car got close.

At the commencement held at the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall), my colleague Professor Isao Miyaoka served as the moderator. Everyone entered as the sound of the chorus resonated pleasantly, and President Seike's address and the degree conferral were carried out as scheduled. Then, the venue moved to the North Building Hall, and Professor Nye's commemorative lecture began. I am not good at formal ceremonies or English, but it was finally my turn. The hall was completely packed, and many students who couldn't get in apparently listened to the lecture via monitors from outside. In the guest seats at the front, U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, his wife, and other U.S. government officials were lined up. Also visible in the audience were many influential figures in this field, such as Professor Welch, the co-author of "Understanding International Conflicts" who happened to be in Japan teaching at Keio, and Professor Akihiko Tanaka of the University of Tokyo, one of the Japanese translators of the book.

At that time in 2010, Japan was under a Democratic Party administration. Although the somewhat rowdy Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had already stepped down, it was a period when anxiety originating from Japan regarding Japan-U.S. relations remained strong. Furthermore, the previous month, a major incident had occurred where the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that rammed a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel off the Senkaku Islands was arrested, but the Japanese government was forced to release the captain, unable to withstand intense pressure from the Chinese side. In this context, Professor Nye's lecture emphasized the importance of Japan-U.S. relations (recorded in the January 2011 issue of this magazine). He also expressed concern about the recent decrease in Japanese students studying in the U.S. Although nothing was arranged in advance, there was a very interesting question from the floor during the Q&A session. One student asked, "If China becomes democratized, will the Japan-U.S. alliance lose its meaning and come to an end?" I remember Professor Nye responding somewhat hesitantly, saying, "That would take time, and in any case, a democratic China should be much easier to handle than it is now."

After the series of official events ended, a dinner with some faculty members from the Faculty of Law was scheduled. However, since not only Professor Nye but also Professor Welch and Professor Tanaka were all gathered together, I decided to set up a roundtable discussion in a room in the Old University Library, utilizing the short time after the lecture. As expected, the talk was fascinating and the discussion was lively. I was worried about how to summarize it, but the graduate students who observed the discussion that day did an excellent job of compiling it into a manuscript (the content is included in the magazine "Asteion," No. 74, 2011).

At the dinner, seven or eight people, including Dean Kokubun and Professor Welch, sat around the table. I don't remember much of the conversation there, but regarding the outcome of the Chinese fishing boat incident, Professor Nye said something to the effect that it might have been for the best for Japan. When I replied that regardless of whether it was good for Japan, I thought it was an "own goal" for China, the cool Professor Nye laughed heartily—a rare sight—and responded, "Exactly."

In March of the following year, immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I had the opportunity to be on a panel with Professor Nye at an ISA (International Studies Association) meeting in Montreal. It was a time when the extremely unstable state of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was drawing worldwide attention. As soon as he saw my face, he said, "I was really worried," and the hand that gripped mine felt remarkably firm.