The conference’s central aim is to re-examine Japan’s relations with the United Nations (and the League of Nations) from the perspectives of international politics and history. Japan was an active member of the LN and has now participated in the UN for half a century. Officially it has repeatedly advocated “UN-centred principle”. Many observers, however, would point out that the policy is either without substance or a domestically directed fig-leaf for its overriding US-centred foreign policy. Moreover, Japan’s historical great power aspirations have often set it at odds with its Asian neighbours, especially China and Korea. At the same time, Japan’s unique peace constitution has in effect seemed to bar Japan from fully participating in UN PKO, which have now become one of that organisation’s major functions.
Secondly, despite the state-centred inclination still apparently prevalent in Northeast Asia and the United States, it must be said that one of the paradoxes and fascinations of the history of the “universal organisations” is that while they have confirmed and embodied the sovereign states model, they have been impressively instrumental in undermining and transforming the very principle of sovereignty. Not the last of these transformations has been in the fields of peace-building, human rights, humanitarian interventions and economic development. By examining Japan’s policy, perceptions and attitudes toward the LN/UN in the context of the complex multi-lateral dynamics that the UN has helped generate, we hope to be able to relate how Japan can/will cope with the overarching transformation of the broad paradigm of international relations.
In this way, our approach can directly contribute to an inquiry into the roles of the UN and other actors as major agents of “global governance”. This is precisely the theme of the inter-disciplinary research project that we are currently engaged in at the Faculty of Law and Politics of Hokkaido University. Our project is made possible by funding from the Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture.
The conference is organised in a form that will hopefully stimulate interaction between historians and international political scientists with current/future policy concerns. Admittedly, mainstream historians have tended to dismiss the UN as irrelevant or of marginal significance to realpolitik, despite its obvious status as a major non-state actor. On the other hand, both theorists of the UN and UN officials may not always have had a sufficiently long-term historical sense of direction. The recent crises in Iraq, Iran and North Korea, as well the incessant discussion over UN reform and peace-building, in particular, appear to urge us to redress such intellectual aporias.
The largely chronological order in which the four sessions are organised will hopefully allow participants to frame Japan’s relations with the LN/UN in the context of a broad international political history of the past hundred years, thus giving us a fresh sense of direction in which Japan and the UN will/should proceed in the 21st century.
Lastly, but obviously not least importantly, we express utmost gratitude for the generous participation of Sir Marrack Goulding, former Under-Secretary-General of the UN in charge of Peace Keeping Operations (1986-1993).
All sessions will be open to public and simultaneous interpretation between English and Japanese will be provided.
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