Making sense of 911 in the era of American Neoconservatism and Unilateralism: how do Japanese Universities teach 911 in International Relations classrooms?

How should we teach International Relations in the aftermath of 911 and the war with Iraq? Does the swift victory of the war against Iraq symbolize the American answer to those responsible for 911? America won the war, so the case settled. In fact, the question concerning 911 is about to fade away in front of the victory of the war. For However, even so, it is still critical to think through 911 and the war with Iraq in the classroom of International Relations. Without this effort, it will be difficult to contemplate how the rest of the world should act in the era of America’s unilateralism and neoconservatism. At the same time, dealing with 911 and the victory of the war against Iraq will also provide students in the classroom with the opportunity to cultivate their media literacy. For example, comparing the views and programs of the Fox News Networks which had repeatedly called the U.S. forces as our forces in their broadcast and those of other networks, will challenge students’ beliefs and understanding of the events and the world. In this paper, I would like to accomplish two objectives. First, I would like to present a survey of course outlines of Introduction to International Relations at major universities in Japan and explore how scholars in Japan incorporate the impact of 911 and the war against Iraq in their courses. The results will be quite instructive because it should show how well Japanese professors incorporate the latest world affairs into their teaching, and also how their preferences or beliefs influence the content of their courses. Then, based on the findings, I will create one semester class of Introduction to International Relations, which covers the impact of 911 and the war against Iraq, and also touches upon the problem of media literacy, by including two recent videos; Why Us? An Insightful Look at the 9/11 Tragedy and What Makes the U.S. a Target (IIMCR) and The Long Road to War (WGBH). By the time of the conference, I will be able to share students’ evaluation of the class for review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]