Faculty + Scholars

Richard

Samuels

Ford International Professor of Political Science
Director, Center for International Studies

samuels@mit.edu

E40-455

617-253-2449

CV
@dicksamuelsmit

Expertise:

Asia (Japanese politics and leadership, Asian security, political economy, comparative politics), Japan (security, politics, public policy, political leadership, defense/aerospace, international education), Italy (political leadership and economic history), civil-military relations

Extended Details

Biography

Richard Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the Center for International Studies. He has been head of the MIT Political Science Department, vice-chair of the committee on Japan of the National Research Council, and chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission. He has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and was awarded an imperial decoration, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Prime Minister. His study of the political and policy consequences of the 2011 Tohoku catastrophe, 3:11: Disaster and Change in Japan, was published by Cornell University Press in 2013. Samuels' Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia, was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book in international affairs. Machiavelli's Children won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies and the Jervis-Schroeder Prize from the International History and Politics section of American Political Science Association. Earlier books were awarded prizes from the Association for Asian Studies, the Association of American University Press, and the Ohira Memorial Prize. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, National Interest, Journal of Japanese Studies, and Daedalus. In 2014 he was appointed Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, where he directs a research group on East Asian Security during the summer.

Research

Japan’s Intelligence and Security: Examination of recent changes in the Japanese intelligence community and their relevance to national security strategy.

Secrecy, Privacy, and International Relations: Project considers how norms about secrecy, privacy, surveillance, and transparency are generated and observed or transgressed—and how they affect international relations. It also considers how the new information ecology affects behaviors of states in the international system.

Japan and the United States in East Asia: With the rise of China and the end of the Cold War, the great power quadrilateral in East Asia has shifted. While the Japan-US alliance continues to anchor regional stability, the domestic politics that support it in both countries are also shifting. This project explores how security policy choices are constrained and enabled by changing security policy discourses in Washington and Tokyo.

Publications

Japan’s Intelligence Community. Manuscript in progress for Cornell University Press.
Under contract with Nikkei Publishing for the Japanese translation.

and Corey Wallace. “Japan’s Pivot in Asia,” International Affairs (Special Issue), forthcoming, July 2018.

and Eric Heginbotham. “The Active Denial Option and Japan’s Response to China’s Challenge,” International Security, forthcoming, 2018.

and Eric Heginbotham. “Will Tokyo’s Arms Exports Help or Hurt U.S. Interests in Asia,” The Cipher Brief, 14 July 2017.

and Mike M. Mochizuki. “Japan’s Energy Security: Strategic Discourse and Domestic Politics,” chapter in Mike M. Mochizuki and Deepa Ollapally (eds.), Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia. London: Routledge, 2017.

and Eric Heginbotham. “Smartening Up Japan’s Defenses,” Nikkei Asian Review (web), 26 January 2017.

and Eric Heginbotham. “How to Get China to Use Its Leverage against North Korea,” The National Interest (web), 18 September 2016.

and Eric Heginbotham. “Poor Substitute: No Japanese Submarines Down Under,” Foreign Affairs (web), 3 May 2016.

“Japan’s 3.11 Master Narrative Still Under Construction,” East Asian Forum, Australian National University, March 2016.

“Abe’s history report fails Japan-ROK relations,” East Asian Forum, Australian National University, August 2015.

“Something for Everyone in Abe's WWII Statement,” East Asian Forum, Australian National University, August 2015.

“Who Decides Japan's Past, and Future,” The National Interest, 26 May 2015.

with Paul DeLuca, Eric Heginbotham, et al. "Future Submarine Cost Assurance Analyses: Task One Final Report" Washington, DC: Rand National Security Research Division, Rand Corporation, April 2015. PR-1828-1-AUS

“A Question for Asia: Is Japan Back?” The National Interest, 27 May 2014.

“The Fog of Politics,” Author’s reply in “Book Review Roundtable” on 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan. Asian Policy, January 2014, Number 17, pp.147-78.

and James Schoff. “Japan’s Nuclear Hedge: Beyond ‘Allergy’ and ‘Breakout’” chapter in Ashley Tellis, ed. Strategic Asia 2013-2014: Asia in the Second Nuclear Age. Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2013, pp.233-264. (pdf)

“Japan’s Rhetoric of Crisis: Prospects for Change after 3.11” Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Winter) 2013, pp.97-120.

and David Leheny, “Amateur Hour,” Foreign Policy, 20 September 2013.

and Henry R. Nau and Timothy Westmyer, “Japan as a Global Power: Views from Japan,” Report of the conference on “Japan as a Global Power: Views from Japan” co-sponsored by the Elliott School of George Washington University, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the MIT Center for International Studies, Washington, DC, June 2013.

“The Evolution of Japan’s Grand Strategy,” The Oriental Economist. May, 2013. pp.11-13.

and Narushige Michishita. “Hugging and Hedging: Japanese Grand Strategy in the 21st Century” Chapter 5 in Henry Nau and Deepa Olapally, eds., Worldviews of Aspiring Powers. Oxford University Press, 2012, pp.146-180.

Books