Joseph Nye: A Foreigner Who Visited the Juku

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 the University of Oxford. The Rhodes Scholarship is a prestigious program funded by the vast wealth amassed by Cecil Rhodes, a well-known 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 student exchange program 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 largely due to the publication of Power and Interdependence, co-authored with Robert Keohane in 1977. This book, which academically refined the concept of "interdependence" and used it as a key to reconstruct international political theory from a macroscopic perspective, quickly became required reading and was widely read throughout the English-speaking world. I, who had just begun my life as a graduate student at that time, remember well how I ordered the original book—which was very expensive for a student back then—and read it with great intensity.

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 regarded as an excellent textbook that always incorporates the latest developments of the era. Thanks in part to the early publication of an excellent Japanese translation, it is likely very widely read among Japanese students.

In addition, he is a leading figure in the American international political science community who has always addressed the central issues of each era head-on. For instance, during the 1980s when the confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over strategic nuclear weapons was prominent, he published Nuclear Ethics to directly tackle the ethical issues surrounding nuclear deterrence. He also introduced the concept of "soft power"—a term now frequently used by Japanese people, though perhaps somewhat overused—to counter the theory of American decline that was popular at one time.

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 Asian 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, although Nye has deep ties with successive Democratic administrations, in 2000 and 2007, he also participated in the creation of the "Armitage Report," a bipartisan policy proposal for Japan, along with Republican security expert Richard Armitage and others. 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 political science association and has been deeply involved in the formation of policy toward Japan, there were even rumors of him being a candidate for Ambassador to Japan when the Obama administration was inaugurated.

Nye visited Keio on October 20, 2010, during the Obama administration, to attend the honorary doctorate award 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. I went to meet Professor Nye at another lecture venue in a Tokyo hotel that day. It was our first meeting, but his friendly, American personality made things very easy. As a result, our conversation continued in the car on the way to Mita, and I almost forgot the arrangement to call ahead 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. Although I am not fond of formal ceremonies or English, it was finally my turn. The hall was completely packed, and many students who couldn't get in apparently watched the lecture on 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 still a period of strong anxiety originating from Japan regarding Japan-U.S. relations. Furthermore, the previous month, a major incident had occurred where the Japanese government was forced to release the captain of a Chinese fishing boat who had been arrested for ramming a Japan Coast Guard patrol boat off the Senkaku Islands, 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 decreasing number of Japanese students studying in the U.S. in recent years. 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 concluded, 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 became quite lively. I was worried about how to summarize it, but the graduate students who observed the discussion that day did an excellent job of putting 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 aftermath 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 usually cool Professor Nye laughed heartily—which was rare—and agreed, saying, "Exactly."

In March of the following year, right 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 held in Montreal. It was a time when the extremely unstable situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was drawing worldwide attention. As soon as he saw my face, he said, "I was really worried about you," and as he shook my hand, I felt that his grip was unusually firm.