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CJS Lecture Series | Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community

Richard J. Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thursday, September 23, 2021
12:00-1:30 PM
Off Campus Location
Based upon his latest book, Professor Samuels will explore the history of the Japanese intelligence community from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries across wars and peace. He will examine where matters stand today now that the Japanese government has begun to enhance intelligence reform.

Richard J. Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2005 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2011 he received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, an Imperial decoration awarded by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Prime Minister. From 2015 to 2019 he was an Albert Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, where he completed Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community (Cornell University Press-- and, in translation, Nikkei Books). Special Duty was named one of the “Best of Books, 2019” by the journal Foreign Affairs.

In 2013, Cornell University Press published his book about the political and economic effects of Japan’s March 2011 catastrophes: 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan. Dr. Samuels’ prior book, Securing Japan: Tokyo’s Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia, was named one of the five finalists for the 2008 Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book in international affairs. Another, Machiavelli’s Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan, a comparative history of leadership in Italy and Japan, won the 2004 Jervis-Schroeder Prize for the best book in International History and Politics from the American Political Science Association.

His 1994 study, “Rich Nation, Strong Army”: National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan won the 1996 John Whitney Hall Prize of the Association of Asian Studies and the 1996 Arisawa Memorial Prize of the Association of American University Presses. His book, The Business of the Japanese State: Energy Markets in Comparative and Historical Perspective received the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize in 1988.

Professor Samuels has also published widely in peer reviewed journals such as International Security, International Organization, The Journal of Japanese studies, and Political science Quarterly, as well as in policy journals such as The Washington Quarterly, The National Interest, and Foreign Affairs.

Please register for the Zoom event here: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_h9IVRf0HTl-gMvpXJ91BTA

This colloquium series is made possible by the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Building: Off Campus Location
Location: Virtual
Event Type: Livestream / Virtual
Tags: Asia, Japanese Studies
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Center for Japanese Studies, International Institute, Asian Languages and Cultures