China

  • America Turns Away From Trumpism

    A Victory for Common Sense The Democrats won the midterms. The larger story is that many Americans rejected the rough-and-tumble America that Donald Trump embodies. Trump tries to get his way with bizarre policies that defy reason, with sophistry, invective, and violence. It is true that America has had men like him in every era. But they have stood outside…

  • A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism 13 The Formation of the Modern Nation-State 5 Patriotism as a Tool of the Modern Nation-State

    （“Patriotism” is a concept that was formed quite artificially in the nation-states of modern Western Europe. While love for one’s family or hometown is natural, love for the abstract entity known as the “nation-state” is sometimes deliberately imposed by those in power. It is an ideology designed to conscript people and levy taxes on them. The nation-state as an institution…

  • Time to Rethink Our Assumptions About North Korea

    What It Means That Pyongyang No Longer Seeks Korean Reunification . Mention North Korea, and certain associations spring to mind: “dangerous,” “poised to invade South Korea,” or “eager for a meeting with Trump.” Yet the underlying paradigm seems to have changed considerably since around 2024. . At a meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in…

  • German Chancellor Merz’s Visit to Japan Shall Promote the Cooperation of Middle-Power States

    German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is scheduled to visit Japan on October 28. He will then travel to South Korea and Singapore. Since his itinerary appears to deliberately bypass China, some in Japan may see this as an opportunity to draw Germany into a coalition aimed at containing China. . However, Chancellor Merz already visited China in February, a country with…

  • A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism 10 The Formation of the Modern Nation-State 2

    (The modern state did not emerge only in Britain. Let’s compare Britain’s path with that of France. The source text is “In Search of Lost Modernity” by Akio KAWATO. The English edition of this book (originally written in Japanese) is on https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hiRK7kjbX0Hxd2NOxPqtQlVWgjDHgKCr/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MB0Me9P5Lpa2HGceuJUdMqqQ2CRHQSxa/edit) (The copyright belongs to the author, Akio Kawato) . The British State Was Formed by the Gentry,…

  • U.S.-China Rapprochement Is Good for Japan

    Akio KAWATO Former Japanese diplomat . Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to the United States on September 23–25. In Japan, there was considerable commotion over President Trump greeting him at the airport and emphasizing in his welcoming remarks that the United States and China had been allies during World War II. Some people even rushed to conclude…

  • A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism 8

    What Was the Modern Nation-State? （The modern world has been built around the “nation-state.” It has borders, a dominant national group and its language, and sovereignty over its territory. We were taught in school that the seventeenth-century Peace of Westphalia established these principles and that sovereign states stand as equals. Today, however, this idea of the modern state is being…

  • Is a So-Called “National Strategy” Necessary for Humanity?

    Yesterday, while listening to a discussion at a seminar, a thought occurred to me. People often complain that “Japan has no national strategy.” But the nation-state itself is something of a mirage. . Once a society begins producing a surplus—in other words, once it accumulates wealth—people emerge who take it upon themselves to use that wealth. They have no practical…

  • Secure the Strait of Hormuz by Charging Tolls

    Navigation is becoming dangerous not only through the Strait of Hormuz, but also through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea. This is intolerable for both oil-producing nations and trading nations. Nor does the United States military appear to retain the ability to secure these waterways by force. . If military force cannot solve the problem,…

  • The Postwar World and the Shifting Currents Beneath It

    (This is a slightly revised version of my article to be published in Newsweek Japan on September 8.) . The Post-Cold War Era and the Expansion of American Power . The international situation today can broadly be described as the “post-Cold War” era. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which divided the world for decades…