My friend Elaine told me about this blog by Stephen Walt. He's an American realist teaching at Harvard, and I like him because although he obviously thinks that realism captures world politics in the best way, he admits that no one theory can actually explain everything and asserts that a healthy debate between different theories develops conventional knowledge.
He says that 'The "compleat diplomat" of the future should remain cognizant of realism's emphasis n the inescapable role of power, keep liberalism's awareness of domestic forces in mind, and occasionally reflect on constructivisim's vision of change' and so that's how I want to be.
I've never done IR theory until now, so all the different theories and the theories within theories (classical realism, neorealism, offencive and defencive realism, etc etc) are so confusing. I didn't really understand why we need to learn these theories in the first place. But as Walt convincingly says, we need to know theories, in order to know how the world works. When we do that, we can actually use this to decide the next step in world policy.
Anyway, back to his blog. He wrote an interesting article the other day on Realism and Toleration this was after he wrote a post on the 'don't ask don't tell' policy in the American Navy, where if you're gay, you're only allowed to serve only if you don't say that you are. The Navy won't ask you, and you don't tell the Navy. Basically, you need to hide who you are in order to sacrifice your own life for the people of the US. Very strange.
So Walt says that this policy from a realist's point of view is a bad policy, because it prevents great talent from serving in the army, thereby making the American military less effective as it should be. In the rough world of power politics, maximizing your own power is the key to survival, and this policy doesn't allow the US to do that, he says.
In his next post, he then applies that in a more global context and compares Japan and the US. Japan is a ethnically homogeneous aging society that has some issues with coping with foreigners in their turf, and he says that this un-attraction of qualified and talented people from the outside world is threatening the survival of Japan.
On the other hand, the US is an attractive destination for foreigners, and it's the 'model' of a 'melting pot society'.
Maybe there is a problem with Japanese policies.
Our population is decreasing, the economy is in deep recession, and creativity doesn't really seem to be promoted in Japan. I don't know if it's the culture and history of isolationism, but we tend to be closed to the outside world, even in the 21st century. Are we strangling ourselves with our own hands?
I don't totally agree with what Walt says, and would like to write about the 'closed' society and how we perceive the world and how the world perceives Japan on a different day (because this post is already too long), but I would just like to say, that I think that this is one of the reasons why I'm here. Here, in the outside world, in the UK, absorbing various knowledge, culture and values.
It's kind of like, if we can't bring the world to us, we'll bring us to the world.
It'll take time to change Japan into a 'melting pot', so until then, maybe we the young people can and should be Japan's own little 'melting pots'.
At the very least, I guess it's better than 'don't come, don't go', if you know what I mean.
(source of image:http://www.i-italy.org/bloggers/1701/italian-american-culture-illusion-or-reality)
