Tuesday, March 21, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Shinzo Abe’s global vision must endure: Jonathan Berkshire Miller in the Globe and Mail

A rules-based order is worth fighting for. Mr. Abe knew it, and we should heed his call.

July 12, 2022
in Columns, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Program, Jonathan Berkshire Miller, Latest News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
Photo by Anthony Quintano, via Flickr.

This article originally appeared in the Globe and Mail.

By Jonathan Berkshire Miller, July 12, 2022

The tragic news of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s cruel assassination last week shocked Japan and the world. Tributes poured in from world leaders from Israel to India, Belgium to Brunei, and many more, attesting to his global influence – and rightly so.

His sudden and unfair demise also occurred at an awful time in geopolitics, when the powers of hate and division appear to be overmatching the primacy of justice and peace, including in Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. And while his killing is unrelated to global ills such as the pandemic and the anxious global economy, it feels like it represents another metaphorical spear to the torso of the beleaguered international rules-based order.

But Mr. Abe’s tenure as the longest-serving and arguably most influential prime minister of post-war Japan – having led the Japanese government from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020, offers an important lesson in these trying times: one of leadership, courage, and persistence regardless of the headwinds.

Mr. Abe was not a perfect leader. His detractors will call him an “ultranationalist,” or frame him as a hawk who wanted to constrain China’s rise. Others may fairly criticize his policies, including the “Abenomics” stimulus policies that have delivered mixed results, or his determined engagement with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at resolving a decades-long territorial row between the two sides.

However, such critiques fail to assess the true aspirations and vision Mr. Abe had as a leader and statesman.

It began in 2007, when Mr. Abe’s ill-fated and familiarly brief first run as prime minister was cut short by poor health and low popularity. Rather than fall into the mould of so many of his predecessors, however, Mr. Abe was determined to earn the top job again, and when he was elected in 2012, he sought to make the most of his second chance.

Domestically, Mr. Abe helped reignite Japan’s economy after decades of stunted growth through his bold Abenomics policies. On the security front, he made groundbreaking reforms to Japan’s dated national security architecture, and enhanced Tokyo’s role as a reliable ally to the United States, but also as a security partner and provider to the Indo-Pacific region more broadly.

Indeed, while he made great strides at home, his most enduring legacy will perhaps be international. Mr. Abe led Japan during a period where globalism was under siege. The rise of China economically over the past two decades has been a boon to the economies in Asia, including Japan, but Beijing has also become more assertive militarily and more willing to ignore the rule of law to achieve its aims. That left Mr. Abe and others in the region no choice but to deter and defend the status quo. Mr. Abe’s prescription of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) was intended not to contain China, as many of his critics claim, but to uphold common values, norms and laws that buttress a shared rules-based order in the region where all can benefit.

But Mr. Abe’s career-defining period arguably came during the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump. While Mr. Abe did court Mr. Trump at times, in the interest of managing Japan’s essential alliance with Washington, his defence and leadership of global institutions and values at the time leaves a lasting legacy that transcends his successors in Tokyo. Examples include Mr. Abe’s leadership to press forward with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, despite the U.S.’s 2017 defection, and his persistent defence of global trade rules and institutions at a time where “global trade” was a curse word in Washington.

Mr. Abe effectively took Japan out of years of sleepwalking on the global stage, a period in which the country was present in international forums but had not been the respected leading voice it is now.

Today, however, global leadership remains elusive and authoritarians are on the march, from Europe to the Indo-Pacific. At times, it feels like the international system is broken and unfixable, with democracies appearing fractured and despondent. But Mr. Abe’s voice would caution against such fatalism and similarly warn against the triumphalism we now frequently hear in Moscow and Beijing, amongst others, about the demise of the West. The rules-based order is worth fighting for. Mr. Abe knew it, and we should heed his call.

Jonathan Berkshire Miller is director and senior fellow, Indo-Pacific at the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

Source: Globe and Mail
Tags: Indo- PacificJapanJonathan Berkshire MillerShinzo Abe
Previous Post

Our National Healthcare Is Struggling, Can The Premiers Get A Handle On It? Dr. Shawn Whatley on ON Point

Next Post

Ukraine recaptures Russian-controlled village: Christian Leuprecht on CTV News

Related Posts

Oaths, trust and Canadian democracy: Stephen Van Dine and Karl Salgo for Inside Policy
Inside Policy

Oaths, trust and Canadian democracy: Stephen Van Dine and Karl Salgo for Inside Policy

March 17, 2023
Preparing for the Foreign Threats to Canadian Democracy: Straight Talk with Richard Fadden
Inside Policy

Canada and Japan’s common miscalculation in cyberspace: Koichiro Komiyama for Inside Policy

March 15, 2023
Defending against foreign interference in our elections: Marcus Kolga for Inside Policy
Columns

As Ottawa balks at an election interference inquiry, public trust in our democracy is draining away: Marcus Kolga in the Globe and Mail

March 15, 2023
Next Post
Ukraine recaptures Russian-controlled village: Christian Leuprecht on CTV News

Ukraine recaptures Russian-controlled village: Christian Leuprecht on CTV News

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.