- Title：Professor
- Degree：Ph. D in International Relations (University of Kent)
- Directed Research：International Relations
- Research Field：European Politics, International Relations
Biography
I am a Professor of International Relations at the Graduate School of International Culture and Communication, and a Jean Monnet Chair in European Union Studies. My research interests include EU–Japan relations, NATO-Japan relations, Brexit, liberal international order, human security, human rights norm diffusion and the SDGs.
My three co-edited Routledge monographs, The European Union and Japan: A New Chapter in Civilian Power Cooperation?, Human Security and Natural Disasters, and Human Security and Japan’s Triple Disaster, appeared in paperback in 2016.
I have carried out research on public opinion and the death penalty in Japan, which was co-funded by the European Commission, and the foreign ministries of Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom. I have an ongoing interest in the influence of Japanese elite opinion on security policymaking, and recently worked on a NATO project where I interviewed thirty senior Japanese security experts. This research was recently published in a special issue of a Q1 international relations journal.
I co-administer a major five-year project funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science on ‘The European Union and Japan in a Fluid Global Liberal Order’. As part of this project I am working on several publication initiatives. I will co-author a Routledge monograph on the diffusion of the SDGs in Europe and Asia, and I am the co-editor of a journal special issue on the implications of Brexit for EU-UK-Japan relations. I am preparing a monograph on the EU as an international actor in the Indo-Pacific.
Finally, I am just starting a new three-year research project looking at perceptions of Brexit in Japan, as part of a Jean Monnet Network, with prestigious partner universities from China and South Korea.
Major Works / Publications Awards
Publications (recent, selected)
Co-edited Journal Special Issues
- Natalia Chaban, Paul Bacon, Joe Burton and Vlad Vernygora (eds.) ‘NATO Global Perceptions – Views from the Asia-Pacific Region’, Asian Security. (Confirmed forthcoming 2018): DOI: 10.1080/14799855.2017.1361726)
Co-edited Books
- Paul Bacon, Hartmut Mayer and Hidetoshi Nakamura (eds) The European Union and Japan: A New Chapter in Civilian Power Cooperation? Routledge, New York, 2016 (Paperback).
- Paul Bacon and Christopher Hobson (eds), Human Security and Japan’s Triple Disasters: Responding to the 2011 Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima nuclear crisis, Routledge, New York, 2016 (Paperback).
- Christopher Hobson, Paul Bacon and Robin Cameron (eds), Human Security and Natural Disasters Routledge, New York, 2016 (Paperback).
Commissioned Expert Reports
- Mai Sato and Paul Bacon, The Public Opinion Myth: Why Japan Retains the Death Penalty, The Death Penalty Project, 2015
Journal Articles - Paul Bacon and Joe Burton, ‘NATO-Japan relations: projecting strategic narratives of ‘natural partnership’ and cooperative security’, Asian Security, Volume 14, Issue 1, 2018.
https://w-rdb.waseda.jp/html/100000801_en.html
Directed Research
Master’s program
This master’s seminar offers a tailored program of study, partially depending on the interests and needs of incoming students. I am pleased to supervise master’s theses on the following topics: international relations theory; the European Union as an international actor (including EU relations with actors such as Japan, China, ASEAN, individual Southeast Asian states, etc.); the EU and Brexit; comparative regionalism; inter-regionalism; human rights promotion and norm diffusion; the responsibility to protect and human security. Candidates who wish to write a thesis
on other topics will of course be considered. The seminar also provides detailed information about how to develop a master’s thesis writing project. Students will be given regular and strict writing deadlines related to their thesis topic to ensure that regular progress is made.
Doctoral program
This doctoral seminar has two main objectives. The first is to provide a tailored program of study depending on the interests and needs of incoming students. I am pleased to supervise theses on the following topics: international relations theory; the European Union as an international actor, the EU and Brexit; comparative regionalism; inter-regionalism; human rights promotion; the responsibility to protect and human security.
The second objective is to provide information about how to develop a doctoral thesis project – how to: identify puzzles, hypotheses and research questions; delimit the scope of the project; conduct a literature review; create and implement a research writing plan; provide information on the main theoretical approaches and techniques which are available to doctoral students; and finally, how to select an appropriate methodological approach. Students will be given regular and strict writing deadlines to ensure that regular progress is made.
