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Publications

    Zhong, Yijiang. “Freedom, Religion and the Making of the Modern State in Japan.” Asian Studies Review 38 (2013): 1-18.Abstract
    Abstract:This paper rethinks the article of religious freedom of the Meiji Constitution of 1889 and calls into question the liberalist paradigm employed to understand the Constitution and modern Japanese history. In this liberalist framework, the Constitution manifests the peculiar and authoritarian nature of the pre-war Japanese state. In particular, the 28tharticle, which provides for the conditional freedom of religious belief, is seen as no more than a cover for social control by the state. This paper examines the histories of the ideas of religion and freedom, and the religious freedom article, and argues that the most appropriate task is not to measure how much religious freedom the Meiji Constitution failed to guarantee against a de-historicised liberalism, but rather to consider the function of the very inclusion of religious freedom in the Constitution. I argue that the inclusion of religious freedom as a generic type of liberty in the Meiji Constitution was instrumental in the creation of the private modern individual as a subject-citizen. It is through this private individual citizen that the modern state as a public, secular authority was created. This paper rethinks the article of religious freedom of the Meiji Constitution of 1889 and calls into question the liberalist paradigm employed to understand the Constitution and modern Japanese history. In this liberalist framework, the Constitution manifests the peculiar and authoritarian nature of the pre-war Japanese state. In particular, the 28 th article, which provides for the conditional freedom of religious belief, is seen as no more than a cover for social control by the state. This paper examines the histories of the ideas of religion and freedom, and the religious freedom article, and argues that the most appropriate task is not to measure how much religious freedom the Meiji Constitution failed to guarantee against a de-historicised liberalism, but rather to consider the function of the very inclusion of religious freedom in the Constitution. I argue that the inclusion of religious freedom as a generic type of liberty in the Meiji Constitution was instrumental in the creation of the private modern individual as a subject-citizen. It is through this private individual citizen that the modern state as a public, secular authority was created.
    Mackie, Vera C. “Gender and Modernity in Japan's "Long Twentieth Century".” Journal of Women's History 25 (2013): 62-91.Abstract
    This article surveys English-language writings on gender and modernity in Japanese history in the "long twentieth century." The discussion is organized around the themes of gendering the public sphere, feminism and the gendered state, gender and labor, and gender, sexuality, and cultural politics, with some closing reflections on emerging research themes which place the study of Japan's modernity in a transnational frame.
    Baker, Carl, and Brad Glosserman. “Doing More and Expecting Less: The Future of US Alliances in the Asia Pacific.” Pacific Forum CSIS. Issues & Insights 13 (2013): I-16,18-100.Abstract
    [...]there has been a tentative move away from the hub-and-spoke model to a more networked system. In Southeast Asia, the authors describe both sides of the growing influence of China - for Thailand it has reduced the importance of the alliance with the USin the Philippines it has provided a new rationale for reinvigorating the alliance relationship. Since the end of the Cold War, alliance partners have at times struggled to find a common rationale for sustaining the alliance with the US.
    Glosserman, Brad. “New Governments, Renewed Purpose: The 19th Japan-US Security Seminar: A Conference Report.” Pacific Forum CSIS. Issues & Insights 13 (2013): I-14,A1-A3,B1-B4.Abstract
    The Forum's programs encompass current and emerging political, security, economic business, and oceans policy issues through analysis and dialogue undertaken with the region's leaders in the academic, government, and corporate areas. [...]the US must show greater sensitivity to Japanese concerns.

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