Military helicopter in Afghanistan

UK-Japan Security Cooperation in a Historical Context: From Afghanistan to Afghanistan

The visit to Japan by UK Carrier Strike Group 21 marked an important step towards the deepening of UK-Japan security cooperation. This unprecedented large-scale naval visit by UK vessels, together with American and Dutch ones, is seen as an implementation of the “Indo-Pacific tilt” presented in the UK’s latest review of its foreign and security policy, Global Britain in a Competitive Age. But Professor Hosoya will place this recent move in a much larger historical context. Two wars in Afghanistan fought by British forces, in 1878-1881 and 2001-2021, both accidentally introduced closer security cooperation between the two island powers, the UK and Japan. What are the implications for the future of UK-Japan relations? Professor Hosoya’s historical perspective can probably provide some enlightenment. Following Professor Hosoya’s remarks, Paul Madden CMG, Ambassador in Tokyo until February this year, will comment and moderate a discussion with the audience.

Please note that this is an in-person event. Guests will be asked to wear masks during the talk, and social distancing measures will be in place.


About the contributors

Paul Madden CMG
Paul Madden CMG (chair) advises corporate clients, speaks and writes about the Indo Pacific and is a Visiting Professor of international relations at Keio University. He was British Ambassador to Japan from January 2017 to February 2021. He was previously: British High Commissioner to Australia (2011-15) and to Singapore (2007-11); Additional Director for Asia Pacific, FCO, and Managing Director at UK Trade and Investment.  He has an MA in Economic Geography from Cambridge University, an MBA from Durham University, studied Japanese at SOAS, University of London, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Yuichi Hosoya
Yuichi Hosoya, Ph.D., is Professor of International Politics at Keio University, Tokyo. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge. He is Managing Director & Research Director at the Asia-Pacific Initiative, Tokyo. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Nakasone Peace Institute, a Senior Fellow at The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, and a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. Professor Hosoya was a member of the Prime Minister’s advisory panels on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security (2013-14), and National Security and Defense Capabilities (2013). He has been a Visiting Professor and Japan Chair at Sciences Po in Paris (2009-10) and a Fulbright Fellow at Princeton University (2008-9). His research interests include postwar international history, British diplomatic history, Japanese foreign and security policy, and contemporary East Asian international politics. His most recent publications include Security Politics: Legislation for a New Security Environment (JPIC, 2019); History, Memory & Politics in Postwar Japan (Co-editor, Lynne Rienner, 2020); and ‘Japan’s Security Policy in East Asia’ in Yul Sohn and T.J. Pempel (eds.), Japan and Asia’s Contested Order: The Interplay of Security, Economics, and Identity (Palgrave, 2018).

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