Military Affairs

  • A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism 11 The Formation of the Modern Nation-State 3

    （A modern nation-state is a massive tax-collection apparatus. Parliament oversees it, while the government and bureaucracy manage its expenditures. The central bank maintains the stability of the currency that underpins domestic economic circulation. Law enforcement agencies guarantee the stability of power and society. The military and intelligence agencies are responsible for national security. And on the international stage, the nation…

  • AI Says: Ukraine Is Becoming a Modern Hundred Years’ War

    Akio KAWATO The war in Ukraine has now lasted four and a half years since Russian forces invaded in February 2022. That alone makes it longer than World War I, which lasted a little over four years and three months. But the conflict actually began when Russian troops seized Crimea in March 2014, so it has already been going on…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • A Proposal for an Alternative Version of The Odyssey

    Yesterday, I went to see Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated film The Odyssey. It was superb. . That said, one line spoken by Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, caught my attention: “I hear that bands of marauders known as the ‘Sea Peoples’ have been attacking city-states everywhere. They would finish the civilization.” . In ancient times, the “Sea Peoples” attacked cities along the Mediterranean…

  • 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…

  • The U.S. Marine Corps Is Changing — and So Is Its Role in Japan

    Watching the current war with Iran, one striking feature is that U.S. Navy warships, particularly aircraft carriers, are staying away from the Strait of Hormuz—or perhaps are simply unable to get close to it. Presumably, the danger posed by mines, as well as Iranian missiles and drones, is simply too great. . If we transpose this situation to the Far…

  • Rethinking Japan’s Place in a Rising Asia

    (This article appeared in Newsweek Japan on August 18.) On August 8, news broke that both South Korea and Taiwan had surpassed Japan in exports during the first half of this year. Since the mid-1990s, I had already grown weary of hearing the world sneer that “Japan is finished—even in Asia.” This latest news felt almost like the final blow.…

  • Japan should avoid unnecessarily provoking China－On the Occasion of the Renewal of the National Security Strategy

    Akio KawatoFormer Ambassador to Uzbekistan; Former DCM, Embassy of Japan in Russia . (Japan is currently conducting its once-every-few-years review of national security policy. As a result, the country’s three core strategic documents—the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Program—are being revised. Recently, the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) published a collection of…

  • From Network-Centric Warfare to AI Warfare

    In the 1990s, under the guidance of thinkers such as Andrew Marshall and Arthur Cebrowski, the U.S. military developed an advanced operational concept known as Network-Centric Warfare. The idea was to connect large reconnaissance and strike drones such as the Predator, cruise missiles, ground forces, and other military assets through communications networks. Information from the battlefield would be gathered and…