2022 JACAC Student Forum: Lecture 5

Title:

“Moving from Comfortable to Inspiring: Japan-Canada Relations in the Indo-Pacific Era” by Dr. Jonathan Berkshire Miller, Senior Fellow - Japan Institute of International Affairs. Director & Senior Fellow on Indo-Pacific - Macdonald Laurier Institute. Senior Fellow - Asian Forum Japan. Director - Council on International Policy

Description:

Describing the present bilateral relations between Japan and Canada in the Indo-Pacific region as “comfortable,” the speaker advocates for moving this relationship “beyond comfort” towards something more inspiring. Regarding the rapidly changing local geopolitical context, both demographically, economically and in terms of growing security threats and climate change challenges, he argues that there is a need to rethink and refresh the way both Canadians and Japanese conduct their foreign policies in this part of the world. In Dr. Miller’s opinion, neither bilateral, nor multilateral engagement can solely deal with those challenges. He sees the solution in the adoption of a “mini-lateral” approach, similarly to what Japan has been doing within the framework of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or QUAD.

JACAC Student Forum 2022: https://www.ualberta.ca/prince-takamado-japan-centre/news/2022/march/jacac-report.html

Prince Takamado Japan Centre for Teaching and Research: https://www.ualberta.ca/prince-takamado-japan-centre/index.html

Japan Canada Academic Consortium: https://www.jacac.com