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    Review Essay | Right to Mourn: Trauma, Empathy, and Korean War Memorials by Suhi Choi

Review Essay | Right to Mourn: Trauma, Empathy, and Korean War Memorials by Suhi Choi

In the post-World War era, an increasing number of western democracies have sought to achieve legitimacy by acknowledging the violence tainting their historic pasts. These admissions have resulted in the creation of reconcilliation commissions, courts prosecuting war criminals, restitution to the victims of conflict, and the construction of memorials. Here, Akshita Mathur reviews Suhi Choi’s ‘Right to Mourn’ – […]

September 17th, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

Troubled Waters: Old Threats in the East China Sea

In recent years, tensions in the South China Sea have dominated security concerns in the Pacific. In this piece, Tenny Kristiana discusses threats in the East China Sea that have slowly but surely been developing in the shadow of its southern counterpart. With close proximity to Mainland China, North and South Korea and Taiwan, Okinawa’s strategic importance has only […]

July 24th, 2020|Uncategorized|1 Comment|

A ‘Successful’ Diplomacy: The US Occupation of Japan, 1945-52

In 1945, USA occupied Japan following the East Asian Empire’s unconditional surrender. This occupation was accompanied with political and social reforms. In this article, Tenny Kristiana examines the diplomatic negotiations between the two nations, and how domestic politics and the evolving international order impacted the creation of a democratic government in Japan.

 

Diplomacy on a global stage has an extended […]

April 23rd, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

Olympic Legacies: Why Postponing Tokyo 2020 is the Right Decision

This week, an International Olympic Committee organiser and Shinzo Abe have hinted that the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo could be postponed until 2021 due to the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus). We have yet to receive a definitive answer. LSE-PKU MSc student Claire H. Evans writes that Japan’s delay in postponing the Games could loom large in its legacy […]

March 23rd, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

The Strategic Failure of the CCP’s Hong Kong Policy

The protests in Hong Kong pit the forces of Xi Jinping’s China against Hong Kong’s implacable public opinion in favor of democracy and the rule of law. The tension between them has the world on a knife’s edge. Hong Kong is a major financial and media capital. Its movement symbolises resistance to advancing authoritarianism around the world. Whatever the […]

September 16th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

Japan’s “Inherent” Territory and the Enigma of Malleable Words

It was a change announced in silence. On 30 January 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzō broke a long-lasting tradition of Japanese diplomacy: when asked about the government position on the so-called ‘Northern Territories’, the three islands (Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan) and one group of islets (Habomai) under Russian rule off eastern Hokkaido that Japan has claimed to be theirs […]

August 12th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

MIRAI Study Trip to Japan: A Report by Aleksi Lahikainen

From the 5th to 14th December 2018, I had the honour of participating on a 10-day academic exchange trip to Japan known as the MIRAI program (meaning ‘future’ in Japanese). This government-sponsored exchange is part of the Japanese government’s efforts to strengthen friendship ties between Japan and Europe by fostering mutual understanding and intellectual discourse. I was selected to […]

April 12th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

Japanese Immigration and the Dark Prehistory of Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban

In this piece, Dr Cees Heere explores the historical precedents of Donald Trump’s recent travel ban. 

Author’s note: I wrote this article in an effort to make sense of the ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries to the United States, announced on 27 January 2017. The revised order introduced on 6 March remedies some of the original’s more obvious […]

March 14th, 2017|Uncategorized|1 Comment|