Abstract
The first chapter describes the research problem undertaken in the monograph, theoretical and methodological framework, as well as overview of subsequent chapters. The aim of the book is to evaluate the impact of the institutional changes introduced by the 2001 central government reforms on foreign policy making in Japan. Influence of domestic-level variables is treated differently by various international relations theories. While neorealists and neoliberals tend to oversimplify reality for the sake of building a uniform structural theory, liberals tend to place an excessive emphasis on domestic sources of foreign policy without paying enough attention to external determinants. This volume advocates a balanced stance between the aforementioned schools, represented by neoclassical realism. The authors argue that while the central government reforms did little to eliminate sectional struggles within the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and internal divisions in ruling parties, they did, under certain conditions, facilitate overcoming the policy incoherence of prime minister’s closest entourage (Kantei). Institutional changes improved the head of government’s relative position vis-à-vis competitive foreign policy making venues, which resulted in a more independent Kantei-led diplomacy. The changed balance of power in foreign policy making is illustrated with nine case studies.
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Zakowski, K., Bochorodycz, B., Socha, M. (2018). Structures and Actors in Foreign Policy Making in Japan. In: Japan’s Foreign Policy Making. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63094-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63094-6_1
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