To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
Speaker: Richard J. Samuels, Ford International Professor, Department of Political Science; Director, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Moderator: Susan Pharr, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Professor Samuels will discuss his recently published book, Special Duty, which analyzes the prewar and postwar development of the Japanese intelligence community. He will detail the impact of shifts in the strategic environment, technological change, and past failures, using examples of excessive hubris and debilitating bureaucratic competition before the Asia-Pacific War, the unavoidable dependence on U.S. assets and popular sensitivity to security issues after World War II, and the tardy adoption of image-processing and cyber technologies.
Co-sponsored by the International Security Program
For more information, email the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations Program Coordinator at astockton@wcfia.harvard.edu