EVENTS

About the Speaker

Before joining the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in 2011, Dr. Arase was Professor of Politics at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, where he taught for 22 years. Since moving to HNC, he has been a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Asian Studies, University of Adelaide; the Social Science Research Institute at the International Christian University of Japan; the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo; and the Yusof Ishak Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. He has published five books and many articles and commentaries on East Asian politics and international relations. His most recent books are The US-Japan alliance: balancing soft and hard power in East Asia(Nissan Institute/Routledge, 2010), which was awarded the 2011 Ohira Memorial Foundation Special Prize; and another edited volume, China's Rise and East Asian Order (Palgrave, 2016). A single-authored book on China’s rise to predominance in Asia (Palgrave) is expected in early 2018. 

Abstract

The speaker will use the concept of the East Asian developmental state to put the evolution of Chinese and Japanese foreign aid into a broader comparative political and historical perspective. He will review how post-reform China’s foreign aid has thoroughly penetrated Africa, at first serving China’s narrower economic security and commercial interests, and more recently expanding to provide China with a solid foundation for broadening its economic, political, strategic, and soft power influence. A comparison with the evolution of Japanese aid in Africa will be offered, noting how China’s rising profile in Africa is forcing Japan to adjust its foreign aid policy to maintain Japan’s abiding interests in Africa.