Research Projects

ANU Chancelry Garden. Photograph by Beth Guernsey

Research Project on Australia-Japan security relations 2008-10

Professor William Tow, Professor of International Security, Department of International Relations, and Professor Rikki Kersten, Professor of Modern Japanese Political History in the Department of Political and Social Change, are the lead investigators for a research project on Australia-Japan security relations funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Australia-Japan Foundation. The University of Tokyo, along with the ANU, is this project's other principal investigator institution.

On 10-12 March 2008, Professor Tow hosted a major workshop at the ANU on evolving Australia-Japan security relations. This event, hosted six experts from major Japanese universities and think tanks, discussed Asian security issues with a focus particularly on alliance politics between these two regional democracies. Along with six Australian counterparts, the Japanese assessed specific aspects of evolving Australian bilateral security and diplomatic relations with Japan. The Australian Minister of Defence delivered a keynote speech at the workshop dinner highlighting key dimensions of Australia’s forthcoming Defence White Paper. Additional Japanese assessments were conveyed to the workshop participants via the ANU Hedley Bull Centre's state-of-the-art teleconference facilities linking up with the University of Tokyo.

A second workshop for this project will convene in Tokyo during late September 2009 and several major policy papers and journal articles will flow from the project’s findings.