Abstract
Perspective can dictate our decisions, who we socialize with, binds our rationality, and has the potential to fundamentally alter how we come to understand a social interaction. The same can be said about states in international politics and the policies they engage in with other actors. By building off of older work performed by sociologists like George Herbert Mead and complimenting it with more contemporary political scholarship, we can find a link between the social aspects of a state and how they can be linked to the enactment of its foreign policy. The work of J.K. Holsti and his National Role Conception theory outlined in his 1970 article paired with older sociological perspectives on the existence of social roles is the keystone of this study. If we consider states to be individual actors who participate in a series of social interchanges with other states, this study asks: “How does Japan’s perceived NRC archetype impact its foreign policy in the Taiwan Strait during crises?” Specifically, this study investigates how Japanese foreign policy unfolded during the Taiwanese Strait Crises during the 1950s and 1990s. This question is joined by the simple arrow diagram of “Japan’s NRC → Japanese Foreign Policy Behavior in the Taiwan Strait.” Furthermore, this study hypothesizes that the perspective of Japan’s government on its role as a regional actor will cause it to alter its foreign policy, resulting in the enforcement or abandonment of certain policies. Three case studies are included within, with each one dedicated to a single crisis. These include the 1954-55 crisis, the 1958 crisis, and the 1995-96 crisis. By utilizing Japan’s Diplomatic Bluebooks to scan for congruent themes, this study can discern which role Japanese policymakers in the MOFA believes Japan to fill. If the perceived role Japan believes that it fulfills matches the actual role it showed during the crises, this study can be a herald for political role theory and its role might be used to predict future Japanese foreign policy.
Advisor
Lantis, Jeffrey
Department
Political Science
Recommended Citation
Freedman, Jonah Brick, "How National Role Conceptions Affect Japanese Foreign Policy in the Taiwan Strait" (2023). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 10697.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/10697
Disciplines
International Relations
Publication Date
2023
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2023 Jonah Brick Freedman