At GRIPS Forum on 20 January, 2020, Dr. Richard J. Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave a lecture titled “Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community”.

abstract:

Intelligence communities are everywhere and always in motion. Japan’s has been no exception, often shifting in response to dramatic analytical and organizational failures, changes in the regional and global balance, and sudden technological developments. In the first half of the 20th century, Japan had a full spectrum intelligence apparatus. This came apart with defeat in WWII and subordination to the United States. After the Cold War, shifts in the security environment and major intelligence failures stimulated rethinking by Tokyo. Following a period of incomplete reforms, the Japanese government began to enhance its collection and analysis capabilities, and to tackle in earnest the dysfunctional stovepipes and leak-prone practices hampering its intelligence system. Where do matters stand today? Where are they headed? In this program, Richard J. Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at MIT, will launch his new book on the subject and discusses the evolution of Japan’s intelligence community as well as its future.

Speakers’ Profile:

Richard J. Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2005 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2011 he received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, an Imperial decoration awarded by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Prime Minister. In 2015 he was named an Albert Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin. His new book, Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community, was based on research undertaken in Tokyo at GRIPS, and is published by Cornell University Press. The Japanese version will be published by Nikkei Publishing Inc.. The book has been named one of “The Best of Books 2019” by the journal, Foreign Affairs.