The Journal of Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer
Online ISSN : 2423-8546
Print ISSN : 2423-8538
ISSN-L : 2423-8538
Volume 2016, Issue 1
Displaying 1-5 of 5 articles from this issue
  • [in Japanese]
    2016 Volume 2016 Issue 1 Pages 1
    Published: January 19, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: January 21, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
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  • Katsuhiko Yokoi
    2016 Volume 2016 Issue 1 Pages 3-14
    Published: January 19, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: January 21, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer was founded in June 2015 on the research support from Meiji University and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan. Mainly from the historical perspective, our Institute aims to analyze the international circumstances hampering efforts for the disarmament and arms control. For the sake of disseminating our Institute, this paper will introduce our joint research progress for the past 15 years and elaborate on the future program of our historical research on the disarmament and arms control.
    Before launching our Institute in June 2015, our joint research dealt with the significant role that arms transfer played in the modern industrial countries from the mid-nineteenth century until the Second World War. It has been supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(KAKENHI), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Firstly, we aimed to clarify the history of arms transfer between Britain and Japan before the First World War, which not only contributed to the development of the British armament industries including Vickers and Armstrongs but also fostered the industrial and military self-reliance in Japan. Secondly, by focusing on the relationships between the arms transfer and disarmament and rearmament between the Wars, we also tried to examine ‘a chain reaction of arms transfer’ among countries pursuing self-reliant industrial-military system.
    From now on, our Institute will analyze the following three related subjects in parallel:(1)global history of arms transfer in relation to disarmament conferences including Washington Conference(1922) and Geneva Naval Conference(1927). (2)growth and export of dual-use aircraft industries in Europe, the United States and Japan between the Wars.(3)arms and technology transfer and military assistance after the Second World War. The industrial and military development in post-independence Asian countries, especially military-industrial-research complex in India could not be fostered without multinational aid which would ensure international independence for India.
    Lastly, in order to send information of our Institute, we are utilizing several ways and means with effect, e.g. symposium, research journal, publishing activity, international collaboration, and conference presentation. It is desirable they will be advantage for developing young researchers.
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  • A Reflection on "Japan" in 2015
    Tomoji Onozuka
    2016 Volume 2016 Issue 1 Pages 15-40
    Published: January 19, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: January 21, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    This paper shows where Japan stands at present from a historical perspective. Since 2010 Japan has been turning a corner to militarization,: emasculation of the Three Principles on Arms Exportation 2011 and the new Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology in 2014, the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets in 2013, the Legislations for “Peace and Security”, and the establishment of the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency(ATLA) in 2015, besides the “Abenomics” has been wrecked on a rock of deep depression.
     The reason Japan has turned to militarization in these few years will be explained by reconsidering Japanese history of growth strategies in these 150 years since the opening ports to the Western Powers in late 1850s. There are two types of growth strategies historically,: investment oriented growth strategy and consumption and life oriented growth strategy. Investment oriented growth strategy unless accompanied with ample domestic consumption should rely upon excessive exportation, militarization and public works just as Fascism and Nazism in 1930s. While consumption and life oriented growth strategy is slow-acting strategy, however supported by broad and deep domestic demand, it can be saved from the dangers of excessive exportation, militarization and public works.
     As observed by almost all economists of the world, “Abenomics” can be clearly classified as an investment oriented strategy and cannot escape from its dangers, therefore Japan has been obliged to slip a dangerous slope into general militarization in 2010s.
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  • Tetsuya Sahara
    2016 Volume 2016 Issue 1 Pages 41-52
    Published: January 19, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: January 21, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Since its inauguration of self-claimed “Caliphate,” “Islamic State (IS)” has been posing growing threats to the global security and existing world order. By scrutinizing its ideological propensity, statecraft and expansion strategy, while putting emphasis on the comparison with its Jihadi forerunner Al-Qaeda, this article highlights the core of IS threats as its possibility of expanding offshore “provinces.”
     Since the end of the 1980s, jihadi proto-states are proliferating over the poverty ridden anarchic Muslim regions in the North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. Albeit short-lived, some of them succeeded in establishing more or less systemized Sharia rule over a certain amount of territories. Compared with those antecedents, IS shows by far formidable resilience with centralized and somewhat stable administrative mechanisms and rich and constant flow of external resources in the form of foreign mercenaries, smuggled arms and ammunition and affluent donations. By combining its internal and external assets, IS now strives to accomplish its eternal objective, i.e. unification of Muslim umma under the resurrected caliphate.
     As the US led coalition has hitherto shown no impressive record in fighting against IS, the threat of jihadi takeover of additional swathe of land is strongly felt among the countries with sizable Muslim population. This led them to consider ad-hoc joint measures to combat against jihadists and several yet abortive plans of new regional cooperation have surfaced. In this regard, the conspicuous records of Shanghai Cooperation Organization merit attention. Starting from moderate attempts of security information exchange, SCO has grown into a political-economic regional structure that can rival the EU or NATO. IS and its possible extension into the other Muslim regions may precipitate the similar organizations as SCO and give birth to a new multipolar global system. The negative side effects of the consequence loom large in the future of Japan. As Tokyo has casted die for unconditional support of the US global strategy, its future lies in a narrow pass that leads either to the total isolation among its neighbors or ever lasting attrition dictated by Washington in the name of the “war against terror.”
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  • The Case of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
    Tamara Enomoto
    2016 Volume 2016 Issue 1 Pages 53-76
    Published: January 19, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: January 21, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    This article seeks to understand the aims of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and identify the difficulties with regard to its implementation. It first overviews the post-Cold War history of arms transfer control. It then analyzes the main articles of the ATT, focusing in particular on reporting obligations—one of the most controversial issues of the First Conference of States Parties to the ATT. The article goes on to consider the aims claimed (or presumably claimed) throughout history by human groups that have attempted to control arms transfers either unilaterally or multilaterally. The aims are classified into three types: security, moral-ethical, and economic. The aims propagated by the supporters of the ATT are categorized into these types, and their distinctive features are explained vis-à-vis the aims of past transfer control initiatives.
     In making sense of the claimed aims of the ATT, the article draws attention to the nature of boundary-making between lawfulness and unlawfulness with respect to the nature, use, and transfer of arms. Agreements to control and regulate arms naturally create simultaneously an unlawful as well as a lawful realm. By highlighting three cases of multilateral arms transfer control—the Catholic ban of arms transfers to the Saracens in the 12th–13th century, the Brussels Convention of the late 19th century, and “global” arms transfer control in the post-Cold War era—this article asserts that the claimed aims of arms transfer control should be understood within the overall logic of boundary-making between the lawful and unlawful nature, use, and transfer of arms. It also suggests that, in these three cases, this overall logic seems to have been in consonance with the dominant ideas of order during the same period.
     Finally, the article identifies the difficulties facing the implementation of the ATT and argues that these difficulties signify the key challenges to the ideas of order that have fostered the development of the treaty.
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