“Territorial Disputes in Northeast Asia and Non-State Actors”

Territorial disputes are one of the main sources of tension in Northeast Asia. Escalation in such conflicts often stems from a widely shared public perception that the territory in question is of the utmost importance to the nation. While the origins of these territorial disputes can be traced to the 1951 Peace Treaty with Japan, the public perceptions of these disputes are a more complex phenomenon. Focusing on non-state actors rather than political elites, in this talk, I will explain how and why apparently inconsequential territories became central to national discourse in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. This talk challenges the conventional wisdom that disputes-related campaigns originate in the desire to protect national territory and traces their roots to times of crisis in the respective societies.

Alexander BUKH is Professor of International relations at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS) of Waseda University, Tokyo.