From Power to Power: An Inquiry into the Development of the Discourse of “International Relations as Intercultural Relations”.

Is there a Japanese IR? Some may say that Japanese IR is simply a recapitulation of Western IR discourses based on power relations and diplomacy. Some may say that there has been no such thing. I contend that there have been some, if not many, indigenous IR discourses in Japan, both in the past and in the present. Important examples in this context include Ire Akira’s “International Relations as Intercultural Relations” discourse, Hirano Kenichiro’s “Theory of Intercultural Relations” discourse, and Imai Hitoshi’s “The Structure of Modernity” discourse. Although these discourses do not appear as International Relations theories as such, they are needless to say indicative of an understanding of contemporary world affairs, especially in an age of transnational civil society.In introducing their discourses I employ the three dimensional approach initially presented by E.H. Carr in his “Twenty Years’ Crisis” and later developed into Ralph Pettman’s theory of “international politics, international political economy, international political culture”. By applying a three dimensional approach to a reading of these Japanese IR scholars, I attempt to re-organise their arguments into a coherent theoretical whole, and to show that there is in fact an important theoretical Japanese contribution to IR. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]