ESRP , Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo invited 40 students and 8 faculty members from the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales(INALCO) [France] the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Administration du Quebec (ENAP)[Canada] and Temple University Japan (TUJ) [USA] to a workshop led by students related to the ESRP at the University of Tokyo The group held a workshop (20/05/2024).
The delegation visited Japan as part of the summer programme ‘Foundations and Practice of Diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific (Pol Sci. 2000)’ jointly organised by INALCO, ENAP and TUJ. – Special Topics)’.
The first step was an ice-breaking lunch for networking among the participants from different countries. This is the kind of occasion where behaviour and conversation is important, even at an international conference between seniors.
The first half of the student workshop consisted of three sessions of 40 minutes each, with a total of four presenters from Japan, the US, Canada and France each giving a five-minute presentation from the perspective of their own country, and the remainder of the time being used for general discussion. To prevent the discussion from becoming too diffuse, the moderator role was played by a teacher from each country.
The first session was ‘Countering Economic Intimidation’. Each country shared examples and best practices on what can be done to deter or mitigate ‘economic coercion’, the use of economic tools to exert pressure on other countries.
The second session was ‘Perceptions of Countries on the Taiwan Situation’. It introduced how the situation in Taiwan is perceived in Japan, the US, Canada and France respectively.
The third session was ‘Countering the threat of disinformation’. Cases of disinformation affecting international politics in each country were introduced and countermeasures were discussed.
The workshop was followed by a lecture by Specially Appointed Lecturer Igata on ‘The rise of economic security in the Indo-Pacific’.
