Note new date below.
The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University invites you to join Michael J. Green as he discusses his book Line of Advantage: Japan’s Grand Strategy in the Era of Abe Shinzō on November 1, 2022, from 5-6 p.m. CT via zoom.
The event will be virtual only. Registration is required. There will be time for a Q&A after. This lecture will be recorded so please ensure your mics and cameras are off.
EVENT UPDATE
Watch the talk Line of Advantage: Japan’s Grand Strategy in the Era of Abe Shinzō
About the Event
No other country has devised a grand strategy for managing China’s rising economic and military power as deliberately or successfully as Japan. Seeking to counter Chinese ambitions toward regional hegemony, Japan has taken an increasingly assertive role in East Asia and the world. During the tenure of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, the country pursued closer security cooperation with the United States and other democracies, established a more centralized national defense system, and advanced rules and norms to preserve the open regional order in the Indo-Pacific that is crucial to its prosperity and survival―all while managing an important economic relationship with China.
In Line of Advantage, Michael J. Green provides a groundbreaking and comprehensive account of Japan’s strategic thinking under Abe. He explains the foundational logic and the worldview behind this approach, from key precedents in Japanese history to the specific economic, defense, and diplomatic priorities shaping contemporary policy toward China, the United States, the two Koreas, and the Indo-Pacific region. Drawing on two decades of access to Abe and other Japanese political, military, and business leaders, Green provides an insider’s perspective on subjects such as how Japan pursued competition with China without losing the benefits of economic cooperation. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Japan’s new active role, Line of Advantage sheds new light on a period with profound implications for the future of U.S. competition with China and international affairs in Asia more broadly.
Michael J. Green
Michael J. Green is director of Asian studies and chair in modern and contemporary Japanese politics and foreign policy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University as well as senior vice president for Asia and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has served at senior levels of the National Security Council, and his books include By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the AsiaPacific Since 1783 (Columbia, 2017).
Abe Shinzō
Shinzo Abe was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history. Abe also served as Chief Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to 2006 under Junichiro Koizumi and was briefly the opposition leader in 2012. On July 8, 2022, Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in Nara two days before the July 10 upper house elections. The suspect, who was arrested at the scene, confessed to targeting the former prime minister because of Abe’s ties with the Unification Church. Abe’s assassination was the first assassination of a former Japanese prime minister since 1936.
