Akihiro Iwashita

Education:

1995 S.J.D., Political Science, Kyushu University
1989 LL.M., International Law, Kitakyushu University
1987 LL.B., Political Science, Kyushu University

Field of Study:

Akihiro Iwashita focuses on border studies and Russian foreign policy towards China and Japan. His published work includes A 4,000 Kilometer Journey Along the Sino-Russian Border (SRC, 2004), Japan’s Border Issues: Pitfalls and Perspectives (Routledge, 2016), and Geo-politics in Northeast Asia (Routledge, 2016). He spent 2007–2008 as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and published New Geopolitics and the Rediscovery of the U.S.-Japan Alliance: Reshaping “Northeast Asia” beyond the Border (Brookings Institution, 2010). Throughout his career, he has been committed to supporting the global border studies community, founding the Japan International Border Studies Network in 2011, organizing the 12th Border Regions in Transition Conference (Fukuoka and Pusan, 2012) and serving as the president of the Association for Borderlands Studies (2015–2016). He has also organized and led numerous tours of contested Eurasian border areas, laying foundations for dispute settlement and mutual understanding. Iwashita was a recipient of the Osaragi Jiro Prize for Commentary (Asahi Shimbun, 2006), JSPS Prize (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2007), and Milefsky Award (IBRU, 2019).

Recent Publications (Selected):

Books:

Japan’s Border Issues: Pitfalls and Prospects. London: Routledge, 2017.
Introduction to Border Studies: Territory, Sovereignty and Ideology [Nyūmon Kokkyōgaku: Ryōdo, Shuken, Ideorogī]. Tokyo: Chūkō Shinsho, 2016.

Edited Books:

Geo-politics in Northeast Asia, London: Routledge, 2017.
Border Tourism [Border Tourism: Kankō de Chiiki wo Tsukuru]. Sapporo: Hokkaidō Daigaku Shuppankai, 2017.
Phobia for Territory: Debunking Myths of Border Nationalism [Ryōdo to iu yamai: Kokkyō Nashonarizumu e no shohōsen]. Sapporo: Hokkaidō Daigaku Shuppankai, 2014.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

“Bordering and scaling Northeast Asia,” Asian Geographer 38: 2, 2021, pp. 119-138 (With Edward Boyle)
“Abe’s Foreign Policy Fiasco on the Northern Territories Issue: Breaking with the Past and the National Movement,” Eurasia Border Review 10, 2020, pp. 111-133.
“Inside and Outside Alliances: Russia’s Eastern Frontiers During the Cold War and After,” Journal of Borderlands Studies 32:1, 2016, pp. 55–70. “Sino-Russian Borders,” In: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, ed., Border Disputes: A Global Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2015.
“Bolshoi Ussuriiski/Heixiazi,” In: Godfrey Baldacchino, ed., The Political Economy of Divided Islands: Unified Geographies, Multiple Polities. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 212–227.
“An Invitation to Japan’s Borderlands: At the Geopolitical Edge of the Eurasian Continent,” Journal of Borderlands Studies 26:3, 2011, pp. 279–282.
“New Geopolitics and Rediscovery of the U.S.-Japan Alliance: Reshaping ‘Northeast Asia’ beyond the Border,” Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 2010. (online)
“The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Beyond a Miscalculation on Power Games,” In: Christopher Len et al. eds., Japan’s Silk Road Diplomacy: Paving the Road Ahead. Washington DC and Stockholm: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program), 2011, pp. 69–85.

Invited Lectures (Selected):

“Where Does State Sovereignty End?,” MCC Budapest Peace Forum, Hungary (June 7, 2023).
“The Changing World after Russia’s Invasion in Ukraine: As seen in Border Studies & Geo-politics,” IGU-TC 2023 Osaka, Japan (April 5, 2023).
“Eurasia from the East: Japanese Views,” Kennan Institute, USA (November 14, 2022).
“Sino-Russian Relations in Recent Years,” Kennan Institute, USA (May 11, 2021).
“Japanese-Russian Unbalanced Relations: Expectation and Reality from Abe to Suga,” Kennan Institute, USA (October 27, 2020).
- “Japan’s Geopolitics from the Perspectives of Border Studies: Challenges and Prospects,” Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand (29 March 2017)
- “Asia and the World as seen by Border Studies: Implications for US-Japan Relations,” USJI Institute, Washington DC, USA (28 February 2017)
- “An Epitaph to the Northern Territories,” Moscow State Institute for International Relations, Moscow, Russia (23 December 2016)
- “New Initiatives on Reshaping “Dark” Borderlands,” Chinese Center for Borderlands Studies, Beijing, China (16 November 2016)
- “A New Era of Geopolitics: Russian ‘Pivot’ to East Asia,” French Institute for International Affairs, Paris, France (15 September 2016)
- “Transformed Border in the Borderless World,” Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand (1 September 2016)

Courses Taught:

- Border Studies and Eurasia
- Russian Foreign Policy Studies
- International Relations and Borders in Eurasia: Past, Present and Future of Northeast Asia
- Introduction to Border Studies

Grants and Fellowships:

- Reconstructing International Relations through Border Studies (JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research A, 2014–2017)
- Border Tourism: Local Initiatives and the Making of a Region (JSPS Topic-Setting Program to Advance Cutting-Edge Humanities and Social Sciences Research Responding to Real Society, 2013–2015)
- Reshaping Japan’s Border Studies (Global COE Program, funded by the MEXT 2009-2014)

Awards:

2011 24th Regional Publication Prize [Chihō Shuppan Bunka Kōrō Shō] for the edited volume Phobia for Territory: Debunking Myths of Border Nationalism (Sapporo: Hokkaido University Press, 2011)
2007 4th JSPS Prize
2006 6th Osaragi Jirō Prize for Commentary [Osaragi Jirō Rondan Shō] for the monograph “Northern Territories”　Neither Four nor Zero nor Two (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Shinsha, 2006)

- Coordinator of Border Region in Transition XII Conference (Fukuoka-Busan: 2012)
- President of Association for Borderlands Studies (2015–2016)