The purpose of this Project is to study both the macro and the micro levels about the structure and the dynamics of international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. Although the emphasis will be put upon the development after the end of the Second World War, due attention should be paid to the understanding of their historical background. This Project includes studies on multilateral and bilateral relations among and between nations, and also focuses on any relevant topic in a certain country which has a meaningful connection in one sense or another with the country's external relations. Research concerning trans-national interactions (such as cultural exchanges, demographic movements, etc.) regardless of national boundaries can be included in this Project as well. Since the Project Research Advisor is a specialist of Vietnamese studies, he will take care of any research concerning Vietnam as much as possible. As for any research in which the contents might be overlapped with those of another Project, please come beforehand for consultation.

The main methods in this Project might be those of international relations history, international politics, comparative politics, international communications, and area studies. Students who intend to rely mainly upon such methods as economics, legal studies and anthropology might better belong to other Projects offered by specialists of respective disciplines. Each student must acquire the linguistic capability necessary for his/her research topic, at least to the extent in which he/she can read concerned documents written in foreign language(s). He/she is also required to search for as many existing studies as possible concerning his/her research topic, and clarify the originality of his/her proposed MA thesis, i.e. how and in which sense his/her work will make a contribution to the development of the concerned research area.

Each student is required to have his/her research scheme, knowledge and information necessary for his/her MA thesis; to present reports regularly during the process of writing dissertation; and to actively participate in discussions concerning other students' oral presentation. More concretely, he/she should present a draft outline of his/her research project, make a survey of existing studies related to his/her topic and make a report of its results, try collecting necessary first-hand documents/information and make reports of the results, and present draft section(s) or chapter(s) after he/she starts writing the dissertation. It is chiefly upon his/her own initiative to choose the dissertation topic and the research method and to collect and analyze acquired documents/information. He/she must however ask for advices and suggestions by the teacher as well as other students. Each student should carefully make a plan to master necessary language(s) and to conduct archival and/or field research, if necessary and possible, in and/or out of Japan. Depending upon the necessity, the Project Research Advisor will introduce him/her to concerned scholars, institutes and/or organizations outside of the university; and would organize reading sessions of Japanese, English and/or Vietnamese documents, as a part of this Project. In the meantime, it might be possible to carry out a joint research project on any certain topic(s), as an extension of the Project and with a broader participation of researchers and institutes in and out of the university. It is however basically up to each student's decision whether he/she joins it.