Philip Streich is currently serving as Associate Professor at Osaka University, where he teaches and conducts research on East Asian politics and international relations. Dr. Streich has authored a forthcoming book on the Sino-Japanese rivalry and has co-authored a collection of strange episodes from international relations based on his blog entitled Weird IR (2019). He has been teaching since 2015 in the School of Human Sciences, a multidisciplinary, social sciences-focused department located at Osaka’s Suita Campus. Dr. Streich has also taught at Haverford College, Pomona College, and Rutgers University. He earned his PhD in political science from Rutgers in 2010.
Japan and the Middle East: Navigating U.S. Priorities and Energy Security
How have Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to recalibrate Japan’s foreign policy affected his approach to the Middle East? Japanese policy in the region has often been forced to balance between U.S. priorities and Tokyo’s own energy security needs. As the authors argue in this article, even on those rare occasions when Japan has shown signs of a more activist foreign policy in the Middle East, the pendulum tends to swing back to a cautious, energy security-focused approach that reflects caution, neutrality, and the avoidance of military entanglements.
