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Waseda University released episode three, “Social Construction of Territorial Disputes in Northeast Asia”, of season two of its English language podcast series “Rigorous Research, Real Impact” on October 21, 2025. All podcast episodes are available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube.

Episode 3: “Social Construction of Territorial Disputes in Northeast Asia”

In the third episode of season two of Waseda University’s podcast series Rigorous Research, Real Impact, our PhD student host Peter interviews Professor Alexander Bukh about his award-winning research on territorial disputes in Northeast Asia. Professor Bukh explains how these disputes—like those over Dokdo/Takeshima and the Northern Territories—are not just political or historical conflicts but are socially constructed through national identity narratives shaped by non-state actors. He also shares insights into his own academic journey, the unique research environment at Waseda, and how his seminars at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies encourage students to critically engage with issues of nationalism and international relations in the region.

This episode is based on the following book: 
Bukh, A. (2020). These islands are ours : the social construction of territorial disputes in Northeast Asia. Stanford University Press.

About Season 2

Season two features eight knowledgeable Waseda researchers casually conversing with Waseda PhD students about their recent, rigorously conducted research in the humanities/social sciences, their thoughts on working in Japan at Waseda, and the merits of the English-based degree programs they are a part of. Short 15-minutes episodes will cover a range of themes that include translanguaging in the Japanese sociolinguistic context, legendary game designer Hideo Kojima, and hybrid peacebuilding. It’s the perfect choice for international listeners considering attending university in Japan, current students contemplating further study in graduate school, and researchers looking to make the move to Japan and work for a university that stresses the importance of interdisciplinary approaches.

Recording in the Waseda International House of Literature (Haruki Murakami Library)

About the Guest: 

Professor Alexander Bukh teaches in the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies. He has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE) and has previously taught at LSE, Tsukuba University, and the Victoria University of Wellington. Professor Bukh specializes in international relations, international relations of Northeast Asia, and Japan-Korea and Japan-Russia relations. He is a member of the International Studies Association (ISA), the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), and the Association for Borderland Studies. 

Transcript:

MC Peter Chai (0:06):
Hello and welcome to Waseda University’s English podcast series titled Rigorous Research, Real Impact. In this series, we dive into interesting conversations and stories from Waseda’s vibrant academic and cultural community.

I’m your host, Peter Chai, a PhD student in the Graduate School of Political Science here at Waseda. Today, we’re exploring the complex and often contentious field of international relations in Northeast Asia. We will be discussing how history, identity, and politics intertwine to shape territorial disputes and national narratives, issues that are at the forefront of the region’s current affairs.

MC Peter (0:49):
To guide us through this discussion, we are honored to have Professor Alexander Bukh from the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies. His award-winning book, “These Islands Are Ours,” offers a groundbreaking analysis of how territorial disputes in Northeast Asia are socially constructed by non-state actors, challenging us to look beyond overly simple political explanations. Welcome to the show, Professor Bukh.

Professor Alexander Bukh (1:14):
Thank you for having me, Peter. It’s a pleasure to be here.

MC Peter (1:17):
Professor, your book “These Islands Are Ours” has received prestigious awards and introduces the crucial concept of territorial disputes as social constructs. For many listeners, territorial disputes might seem like straightforward political or historical conflicts. Could you start by explaining what it means to view these disputes as socially constructed? How do these issues become deeply embedded in a nation’s identity and collective memory, as you’ve observed in cases like Dokdo/Takeshima?

Professor Bukh (1:47):
Thank you, Peter. First, I think we should briefly talk about what it means to be socially constructed. This is a concept that comes from sociology but has been embraced by other social sciences like international relations, the discipline I belong to, but also political science, history, economics, and many other disciplines, as well. So, what does it mean to be socially constructed? The meaning is rather simple: it means that the various meanings associated with certain material objects or issues emerge in a specific social process. So, different processes that take place inside societies ascribe certain meanings to these objects, issues, or events, and these meanings become shared by others—by most members of the society or by the whole society.

Professor Bukh (2:37):
A good example would be something like a Rolex watch. When we see somebody with a Rolex, I mean, it’s just a watch, basically a machine to show time. But when we see somebody with a Rolex, we associate this person maybe with success, wealth, or maybe showing off. So, these meanings will be shared by most members of a society, and we take this for granted. Everybody, I think, in the modern society, you know, will share this understanding when they see somebody with a Rolex. But this meaning ascribed to a Rolex watch, it emerges within, inside, specific social processes, and then it’s disseminated inside the society.

Professor Bukh (3:13):
So this is what we mean by social construction: meanings associated again, with certain objects, issues, things, they emerge inside social processes. And this is what I mean by the social construction of territorial disputes. Because in the case of territorial disputes in Asia, Northeast Asia, including Dokdo/Takeshima that you mentioned, the roots of territorial disputes, they go back to, well, the defeat of Japan, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the way this treaty has been written. But the meanings associated with these territories, these disputed territories, they emerged inside or as a result of specific social processes that took place in various countries involved.

The Role of National Identity Entrepreneurs

MC Peter (4:02):
Thank you professor. In your research, you highlight the role of “national identity entrepreneurs”—non-state actors who play a key role in shaping these narratives. What motivates these actors, and how do they elevate a territorial issue to a symbol of the entire nation?

Professor Bukh (4:18):
Right, this is a very good question, and this is one of the questions that I’m trying to answer in my monograph. And the simple answer is it depends. It varies from the case in question, the case of territorial disputes, and the country in question. And it also varies sometimes by timeframe, so depending on when these actors in different times in, well, recent history, obviously, they were motivated by different issues; they had different motivations to engage in this kind of activism. But as a generalization, we can say that not always, but quite often, the main motivation for engaging in this kind of activism is related to the economic interests of, well, their livelihoods, their basically material well-being.

Professor Bukh (5:03):
However, in the process—and again, this is something that I’m tracing in my book—in the process of this social construction, in the process these actors, non-state actors, interact with the state. Quite often, they request the state or demand from the state to engage more, to protect this territory, to demand the return of this territory, to be more active in this kind of activities. So, in this kind of complex process of interaction between these non-state actors and the state in question, these territories acquire different meanings. They acquire symbolic meanings, the disputed territories. And quite often they became symbols of the nation. They acquire this symbolism associated with the nation’s victimhood, quite often at the hands of the other, the nation’s loss, this kind of issues.

A Researcher’s Path to Northeast Asian Studies

MC Peter (5:58):
Thank you, Professor. That’s a great way to reframe our understanding of these conflicts. It makes me curious about your own academic journey. Your work looks at the intricate relationships between Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Russia. Could you tell us about your background and what path led you to focus on the politics and international relations of Northeast Asia? What was it about this specific and complex region that captured your academic interest?

Professor Bukh (6:18):
I did my undergraduate and master’s studies in Japan, and initially, I studied international law. And this was a result of a mistake. I couldn’t really read Japanese when enrolling into my undergraduate study, so I missed the law kanji, the Chinese character, in the title of the course I was enrolling for. I was pretty sure I’m enrolling in a course of international studies, international relations, but I actually enrolled in a course of international related law, which basically means international law. And since I did it for four years, I did it for another two years, for six years, at my master’s level. But then I decided to finally move to international relations, so that’s what I did for my PhD.

Professor Bukh (6:55):
And since I was born in Russia, I spent quite a bit of time in Russia, so I knew a bit about Russian history, Russian politics, and obviously I knew the language. But I also spent time in Japan. I decided to use my relative advantage and to focus on Japan-Russia relations. So that was my PhD project on Japan-Russia relations. And as part of this project, I obviously looked at the territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, the so-called Northern Territories dispute, or the Southern Kurils dispute as it’s known in Russian. And from there, I got interested in those actors, non-state actors, so there’s a movement for the return of the Northern Territories consisting of various actors, various civil society groups, but also the state is quite heavily involved. So, that’s a project that I decided to go more in-depth into, I mean this kind of research. So, I focused on non-state actors in the Northern Territories dispute. And from there, I realized that there are other disputes in Northeast Asia which also involve various non-state actors, their participation in it. And that’s how I decided to look at other disputes, and that’s how I finally, I mean, I wrote this monograph and a few articles before that, that focused on other territorial disputes, so not only between Japan and Russia, but the Dokdo/Takeshima we talked about before between Japan and Korea, but also on the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute or issue between Japan and China.

MC Peter (8:22):
Thank you, Professor. May I ask, was there a particular event, a piece of research, or a personal experience that served as a critical juncture for you, solidifying your decision to dedicate your research to understanding the interplay of nationalism, identity, and territorial disputes in this part of the world?

Professor Bukh (8:38):
Thank you for this question. I don’t think there was a specific event, but I think because I’ve lived in different countries in my life—I was born in the Soviet Union, I grew up in Israel, but I left at the age of 19, been living in Japan for almost 20 years combined, but also lived in many different countries—I don’t have deep attachment to a specific country or a specific nation. And this is something somebody told me once, that researchers often research or are interested in things they don’t have. So, for me, this is something that I don’t have. I don’t have this deep attachment to a specific nation. I understand, I try to understand this emotion and this attachment and this feeling, but this is something that really interests me and fascinates me, and that’s why I decided to focus in my research on this issue of identity, national identity specifically.

Japan as a Hub for International Relations Research

MC Peter (9:33):
Thank you professor for sharing your personal experiences. Your research is deeply engaged with Japan’s role in the region and its relations with its neighbors. What makes Japan such a significant and rich environment for studying international relations in Northeast Asia? Being based at a Japanese university like Waseda, what unique perspectives, materials, or academic dialogues can researchers expect in your field?

Professor Bukh (9:54):
Well, overall, I think Japan is one of the best places to study international relations of Northeast Asia. One is because Japan is part of Northeast Asia. And at the same time, it also has deep connections with other parts of the world, with the United States, with Europe, with other countries. So, you have all those connections in terms of people who visit here, like scholars, but also students. And another thing is Japan is really good in terms of libraries and archives, which are mostly accessible, open. So, it’s possible to do research here, it’s possible to collect materials.

Professor Bukh (10:31):
Japan also, I mean, the research environment is quite free, I think. So, we’re quite free as academics, we’re quite free to pursue the topics that we’re interested in. There are not many restrictions on the kind of topics that we engage with. So, I think in this sense, Japan overall is quite a good place to be in.
Waseda is a great university, obviously. It’s great because it’s located in Tokyo. It’s great because it has a wonderful library, which I think is one of the best, if not the best, academic libraries in Japan, and I’ve been to quite a few. It’s great because of the scholars and the students definitely, who ask challenging questions. And it’s also great because of the visitors and different talks that we have here. Scholars from all over the world come here, give talks, so we don’t need to go too far to listen to or to get exposed to cutting-edge research in our field.

Studying at Waseda’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS)

MC Peter (11:31):
Thank you Professor. I agree with you that, as a PhD student, I am also benefitting a lot from Waseda’s opportunities. Your answers were very insightful. For any potential future Waseda students listening from around the world, I’m sure they would be thrilled by the prospect of studying these topics with you. For students interested in the international relations of Northeast Asia, what makes Waseda’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS) a unique and appealing place to learn?

Professor Bukh (11:49):
Well, so first of all, we’re a graduate school, meaning that you can do either master’s or PhD or both with us. I think it’s quite unique because we offer the possibility… so we are a bilingual graduate school, meaning that we offer the possibility of studying in both English and Japanese. And it’s very much up to the students which course they choose, but in terms of courses, they can choose courses in English and in Japanese as well. So, for those who don’t speak Japanese or for international students who don’t speak Japanese, this is a great opportunity to do a degree, but also to learn Japanese in the process. And for those who do have a really good Japanese language ability, it’s an opportunity to take classes in English and to improve their English both in terms of speaking and listening, but also in terms of writing as well.

Professor Bukh (12:41):
And I think my colleagues, they’re great experts that cover various aspects of international relations in Northeast Asia. So, you can, you get exposed to first-class researchers that look at, you know, international relations, so the politics, but also the economic aspects, the cultural aspects, popular culture. And we all, we offer courses and guidance in all of those areas. So, I think GSAPS is definitely a unique and a good place to pursue your graduate, your postgraduate study.

Inside the Classroom: A Glimpse into Professor Bukh’s Seminars

MC Peter (13:16):
Thank you Professor for sharing about GSAPS for prospective students. Could you tell us about some of the courses or seminars you teach, such as “Politics and International Relations in Northeast Asia”? What kind of intellectual environment and research opportunities can students expect when they join your seminar at GSAPS?

Professor Bukh (13:30):
I teach, I mean, the two courses that I teach, which I teach both in English and in Japanese. One is basically looking at nationalism and international relations. So, this is a broad course. It covers various issues and disputes from around the world, including Northeast Asia, but not limited to. And we’re looking at the role nationalism or national identity plays in shaping these conflicts. This is one course.

Professor Bukh (13:55):
And another course, I’m looking at, I’m looking at the Korean peninsula and most importantly, Japan’s relations with the Korean peninsula. So, for those students that are interested in learning about Japan-Korea relations, the developments in modern Korea-Japan relations, this course would be for them. We basically start from the, well, late 19th century and go all the way to the present day. So, these are my two main courses that I teach these days at GSAPS.

Professor Bukh (14:21):
In terms of intellectual environment and research opportunities, well, I mean, the students have obviously, they have access to Waseda’s library, they participate in other courses. So, I think it’s really beneficial for them intellectually. In terms of intellectual environment, I’m trying to keep it interactive. I don’t really like lecturing. So, my courses, basically, they’re based on interaction between me and the students. I do not try to impose my perception or my interpretation on them. I try to encourage them to think by themselves how to interpret various issues, various cases that we discuss. We do quite a lot of group work as well. So, I think students who like to interact with their peers, other students, but also to do independent work, search for material by themselves, I think they will find my courses quite appealing.

A Final Message for Future Students

MC Peter (15:14):
Thank you, Professor. It sounds like a really engaging class. I have really enjoyed speaking with you, Professor Bukh. Before we wrap up our conversation, do you have a final message for students around the world who might be considering studying at Waseda, or even researchers who might be contemplating taking up a position in Japan?

Professor Bukh (15:29):
Come to Waseda. You will have fun. Good place to be for both students and researchers. This is my message.

MC Peter (15:36):
Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise with us, Professor Bukh.

Professor Bukh (15:40):
Thank you for having me, Peter. It was a pleasure. Thank you.

MC Peter (15:49):
And thanks to all our listeners for tuning in. For more conversations from the corridors of Waseda University, don’t forget to subscribe and tune into the next episode on Rigorous Research, Real Impact. Until then, take care and stay curious.