Reflections on Abe Shinzo’s Legacy in the Indo-Pacific
The assassination of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on July 8, 2022 sent shockwaves throughout the world. Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo forged a distinctive path in domestic politics and international relations. Domestically, he is known for Abenomics, a set of pro-growth policies aimed at reviving the economy. On the international level, former PM Abe was the architect of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad) and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). A champion of free trade, he played a vital role in negotiations for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). He is, in the words of Dr. Michael Green, “Japan’s most consequential modern Prime Minister.”
This event will gather a group of distinguished scholars and policymakers to reflect on former PM Abe’s legacies in U.S.-Japan relations and in the Indo-Pacific region. The event will begin with introductory remarks by SFS Dean Joel Hellman and Asian Studies Director Yuhki Tajima, who will announce the establishment of the annual Abe Lecture on U.S.-Japan Relations. Next, we will invite His Excellency Tomita Koji, Japan’s Ambassador to the United States; Dr. Michael Green; Dr. Victor Cha; and Dr. Sheila Smith to share their personal reflections on the passing of former PM Abe and their analyses of his political legacies.
External attendees (non-Georgetown) should upload their vaccination documentation to this portal ahead of arriving on campus.
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PANELLISTS
H.E. TOMITA Koji is Ambassador Extraodinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States. Ambassador Tomita’s diplomatic career in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spans 40 years. Most recently, he served as Japan’s Ambassador to Korea, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Personal Representative for the G20 Summit in Osaka, and Ambassador to Israel. His other overseas postings have included London and Paris.
Apart from his overseas duties, his main professional focus has been on security policy, having been actively involved in the policy and legislative reviews that the Japanese Government undertook in the area in recent years, including Japan’s Legislation for Peace and Security that has increased Japan’s deterrence.
His relationship with the United States began when he studied in North Carolina for a year in college. Since he entered MOFA, he has also held leadership positions in US-Japan relations, including Director-General of MOFA’s North American Affairs Bureau and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC. In these capacities, he led the Japanese efforts to strengthen the Japan-US alliance and to promote mutual understandings between the two nations. He was also responsible for the preparation of Prime Minister Abe’s highly successful official visit to the United States in 2015.
Ambassador Tomita writes in his spare time and has published two books (in Japanese): Churchill: Leadership in Crisis and Margaret Thatcher: Iron Lady Who Changed Politics. The latter won the Yamamoto Shichihei Award.
Ambassador Tomita graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law and joined Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981. He is married to Noriko, and they have two daughters and a son.
Dr. Michael Green is chief executive officer at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Previously Dr Green was senior vice president for Asia, Japan Chair, and Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and director of Asian Studies and Chair in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He served on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) from 2001 through 2005, first as director for Asian affairs with responsibility for Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and then as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Asia, with responsibility for East Asia and South Asia. Before joining the NSC staff, he was a senior fellow for East Asian security at the Council on Foreign Relations, director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center and the Foreign Policy Institute and assistant professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, and senior adviser on Asia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also worked in Japan on the staff of a member of the National Diet.
Dr. Green has authored numerous books and articles on East Asian security, including most recently, By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783 (Columbia University Press, 2017) and Line of Advantage: Japan’s Grand Strategy in the Era of Abe Shinzō (Columbia University Press, 2022). He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from SAIS and did additional graduate and postgraduate research at Tokyo University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Kenyon College with highest honours.
Dr. Victor Cha is professor of government and holds the D.S. Song-KF Chair in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University. In July 2019, he was appointed vice dean for faculty and graduate affairs in SFS. He left the White House in 2007 after serving since 2004 as director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). At the White House, he was responsible primarily for Japan, the Korean peninsula, Australia/New Zealand, and Pacific Island nation affairs. Dr. Cha was also the deputy head of delegation for the United States at the Six-Party Talks in Beijing and received two outstanding service commendations during his tenure at the NSC. He is the author of five books, including the award-winning Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, 1999) (winner of the 2000 Ohira Book Prize) and The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (Harper Collins Ecco, 2012), which was selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012.” His newest book is Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016).
Dr. Sheila A. Smith is John E. Merow senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Japanese politics and foreign policy, she is the author of Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China (released in Japanese as 日中 親愛なる宿敵: 変容する日本政治と対中政策), and Japan’s New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. She teaches as an adjunct professor at the Asian studies department of Georgetown University and serves on the board of its Journal of Asian Affairs. Dr. Smith earned her MA and PhD from the political science department at Columbia University.