L'ambiguite de l'identite japonaise en relations internationales et la montee en puissance de la Chine: la fin du pacifisme constitutionnel?

In: Relations internationales: revue trimestrielle d'histoire, Heft 154, S. 125-142

Abstract

Since the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan's identity in international relations has been steeped in ambiguity. This ambiguous identity has its origin in the difficult connection of two worlds: the West and the Orient. The Meiji oligarchs chose modernity but kept Japan's traditional system of authority. To understand the international system of their time, they relied on a cognitive scheme based on the power structure of the Edo bakufu (military government) that gave birth to a long "Kantian peace". This article uses this cognitive scheme that has profoundly influenced Japan's political thought to transform it into an historical analogy capable to enlighten us on Japan's ambiguous identity in international relations, from Meiji until today. Japan has now to rethink its pacific constitutionalism in the face of the rising power of China. Adapted from the source document.