On Monday, November 17, the Hamilton Lugar School's 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI)* hosted Professor Mary Alice Haddad (Wesleyan University) for a series of campus engagements culminating in a public talk in 21JPSI’s multidisciplinary “Japan Politics and Society” speaker series. At Wesleyan, Prof. Haddad is the John E. Andrus Professor of Government of East Asian and Environmental Studies.
In addition to her public talk, while on campus Prof. Haddad participated in a series of meetings with students and faculty. Her student engagements included a discussion on sister cities and subnational diplomacy with 26 students in 21JPSI director Professor Adam Liff’s “U.S.-Japan Relations” class, as well as a separate lunch with a dozen students interested in her research on Japan. Her faculty engagements included multiple one-on-one discussions and dinner with 21JPSI faculty affiliates.
That afternoon, a near-capacity crowd of 46 students, faculty, staff, and community members turned out to hear Prof. Haddad’s public lecture on “U.S.-Japan Environmental Cooperation.” During her remarks, she emphasized the myriad and innovative ways that the two countries have been working together on environmental and climate issues, including cooperation at the global, national, and local levels. She pointed out that although media bias their reporting toward the rhetoric and policies of national governments, the reality is that much of the forward momentum in this space occurs at other levels and without regard to mercurial national policy directions.
As examples of firm-led innovation, she highlighted efforts by Toyota and Lilly, two major firms with a massive presence both in Indiana and globally. She also highlighted other subnational cooperative efforts, including MOUs between state/prefectural and/or municipal governments, and even collaborations among individual ports (e.g., a green initiative involving the ports of LA, Tokyo, Yokohama). She closed her prepared remarks on a sober note, pointing out that despite significant positive cooperation in recent years, growing geopolitical and security concerns related to supply chain, critical mineral, and other vulnerabilities present a major challenge.
Following her remarks, Prof. Haddad engaged in a Q&A session for over thirty minutes with an enthusiastic audience asking questions on a diverse array of topics. The 75-minute event closed with Prof. Haddad offering advice to students who want to play a positive role in their communities—and beyond—in the years ahead.
*The 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI) was launched at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in 2018. Under the leadership of Founding Director and HLS faculty member Adam Liff and thanks to significant financial support from the Japan Foundation, from its base in the Midwest 21JPSI aims to invigorate and expand research, teaching, and programming on contemporary Japanese politics, society, and international (esp. U.S.-Japan) relations, and to educate, raise awareness, and debate policy responses to the various political, social, and foreign policy challenges that Japan faces today. For more information about 21JPSI, please visit https://jpsi.indiana.edu/ and sign up for our event announcement mailing list.
21JPSI is dependent on outside philanthropy to create opportunities on campus like the event described above. If you are interested inmaking a charitable contribution to support 21JPSI’s important mission at a flagship public university in the U.S. heartland, please contact HLS’ Senior Director of Development