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IV. Contributing to World Peace and Stability
In this age of globalization, it is impossible to accomplish peace and prosperity in isolation. There are a number of problems that cannot be solved unless tackled by the international community as a whole. This fact is clearly understood when one recognizes the futility of Japan single-handedly tackling the problem of C02 emission and global warming. It would also be abortive for Japan alone to try to deal with the problem of international terrorism, when anyone in the world can be the target. It has also been proved by HIV/AIDS and SARS that infectious diseases spread regardless of national boundaries. Against this background, it would be clearly in Japan's enlightened national interest to promote international cooperation to combat these globalized issues. To accomplish this, however, Japan will have to seize every occasion to contribute to peace and stability in the world. Today, there still exist a great number of people in Africa and other corners of the world who are suffering from poverty and armed conflicts, and it would be only humane to extend a helping hand to these people. We should never hesitate to provide such assistance so that diverse cultures of the world, which are a common heritage of mankind, should not be destroyed by poverty and war. Through these kinds of activities, we wish to spread the spirit of "mutual help" throughout the world, which will make us proud of being Japanese.
In this global era threats are characterized by their diversity. Some of the major threats of today include: (1) war between nation states; (2) civil war, violation of human rights, and massacres; (3) poverty, epidemics, and environmental degradation; (4) nuclear and radio active weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons; (5) terrorism; (6) cross-border organized crime; and (7) deterioration of the rule of law and democracy. Another characteristic of today's global threats is that they simultaneously jeopardize the security of nation-states, societies, and individuals. For example, poverty-stricken people in developing countries are also threatened by environmental degradation and infectious diseases. When a war breaks out, financial and human resources are removed from the fight against poverty and environmental devastation, further worsening the living conditions of those people. If the rule of law and democracy are undermined, lawless lands may provide safe havens to terrorists and international organized crime. To effectively counter these multiple and simultaneous threats, we need to grasp the situation in a global perspective and construct and apply comprehensive measures.
Here, we wish to introduce the concept of "human security" as a proactive security concept to protect human life, basic human rights, and living environments from such evils as armed conflict, poverty, environmental degradation, infectious diseases, inhumane conduct, and terrorism. What we should aim at is to enhance this human security for the maximum number of people and create global conditions that enable each and every individual to make the most of his/her potential.
In this context, the pillars of our policy can be summarized as (1) promotion of sustainable development, (2) achieving stable peace, (3) prevention of WMD proliferation and terrorism, and (4) reform of international organizations. Any one of these four pillars is indispensable for the peace and stability of the international community and happens to be the area in which Japan's foreign policy can show its real ability. These pillars are quintessential to Japan's foreign policy of living in harmony with the world.
1. Enhancing Sustainable Development
As the second largest economy in the world, it is only proper for Japan to play a responsible role in the sustainable growth of the world economy. The most fundamental contribution will be to maintain its stable economic growth and open its market to the world. Market opening has been a most important theme in discussions among advanced countries, and in recent years a number of developing countries have begun to demand the market opening of advanced countries to promote their economic take-off. Advanced countries should make further efforts to open their markets so that developing countries will also benefit from globalization. Japan, too, must actively promote imports from developing economies.
Nevertheless, sustainable development cannot be achieved when the market mechanism is left alone to work itself out. In developing countries, the market mechanism, left unattended, may distribute financial and human resources in such a way that hampers the efforts to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, promote sustainable development, and prepare social foundations for economic development. What is called for here is wise utilization of ODA to fulfill the needs exposed by the market mechanism.
Since the end of World War II, Japan has greatly contributed to the nation building and economic development of countries in Asia through economic cooperation as well as trade and investment. Its contribution has played a significant role in developing East Asia as the world's growth center. Japan's economic cooperation and corporate activity has not been free of controversy, but it is a fact that Japan has played a very significant part in the economic growth and democratic development of various Asian countries and this is a success story brought about by post-war Japan. Nevertheless, it is necessary for Japan to review its ODA from a strategic viewpoint and improve its effectiveness as a tool to facilitate sustainable development.
First, Japan should develop a strategic ODA policy to contribute to the East Asian Community building. It is a reality in East Asia, which is a world growth center, that multiple problems including poverty, disease, environmental degradation, and population explosion in urban areas are simultaneously on the rise. It will be important for Japan to consider utilizing its ODA to overcome these negative byproducts of economic development in cooperation with East Asian countries. For example, Japan's ODA can contribute to the control of Asia-originated environmental destruction by promoting an energy-efficient dispersed power resources system and an energy-saving transportation system. If used to facilitate an information-sharing system for the control of new infectious diseases and prevention of recurrence of existing diseases, Japan's ODA may be able to help curb the spread of epidemics. As East Asian countries achieve economic development, an increasing number of these countries are graduating as recipients of ODA to become providers of ODA themselves. In cooperation with these successful countries, Japan should concentrate its ODA disbursement more heavily toward pre-take-off countries.
Second, Japan should prioritize ODA disbursement to the human development areas. Development of human resources is the cornerstone of community and nation building without which sustainable development will be no more than a name. Even if schools are built to promote education, they will not function without measures to train teachers. Even if the judicial system and related laws are introduced with the purpose of establishing a law-abiding society, its foundation will be very weak without training legal professionals. To avoid these shortcomings and make an effective contribution, Japan should fix an order of priority to assistance in human resources development. Japan should also prioritize the promotion of mutual understanding with Asian countries by improving the support system to accept more overseas students, particularly from Asian countries.
Third, Japan should emphasize humanitarian assistance to African and other countries where the lives of millions are threatened by famine, natural calamities, civil wars, and ethnic conflicts. While it may not be possible to save all of these people, Japan should respond to their expectations by consolidating a humanitarian assistance system which enables Japan to contribute what it can in the most timely fashion. Over-indebtedness on the part of developing countries forces them to pay interest at the sacrifice of education, medical care and public health, and environmental protection. Japan should extend its cooperation to mitigate this situation.
Fourth, the Japanese government should strengthen its cooperation and collaboration with NGOs concerning ODA activities as a whole. There are quite a number of NGOs that are far more knowledgeable of the local conditions and peoples' needs than the government. These organizations are true assets for the Japanese government which can help improve the effectiveness of Japan's ODA. The government should also expand and improve its grants on NGO-initiated grass-roots activities, promoting economic cooperation projects that are full of original ideas, albeit small in scale.
Fifth, to overcome inefficiency and injustice in Japan's ODA administration, the new government of Japan will review the entire ODA process. In the past few years, Japan's ODA has been cut down yearly due to financial austerity. The new government of Japan will resolutely review the entire ODA process, including the ODA Charter and the Principle of ODA Implementation. Japan must improve its ODA, both qualitatively as well as quantitatively, with the full understanding and blessing of the Japanese people. It will drastically reform the current ODA disbursement that attaches more importance to building public facilities and civil engineering than to software development such as human resources.
Finally, we will upgrade our effort to control the global warming process, which is a critical element in realizing sustainable growth. The current Kyoto Protocol essentially imposes restrictions on advanced countries regarding the emission of carbon dioxide while it does not impose mandatory restrictions on developing countries. The United States refuses to sign the Protocol for several reasons, including the fact that China and India are not included in the restriction target countries. While negotiations for the post-Kyoto Protocol regime will be launched in earnest, Japan should also make its utmost effort to facilitate, for itself as well as future generations of the world, a climate change prevention regime involving all the countries including the United States as well as China, India, and other developing countries. At the same time, Japan will actively engage in technological innovation to overcome the environmental problems and transfer of Japan's advance environmental technologies to the developing countries.
2. Achieving Stable Peace
When a military conflict breaks out, people are simultaneously faced with a variety of threats, including violence, inhumane conduct, destruction of domiciles, forced migration, famine, and epidemics. The best prescription against these problems is to achieve stable and lasting peace. Achieving peace requires an unbroken chain of policy measures from prevention of a conflict, to early settlement of the conflict when it breaks out, to the prevention of a recurrence after the conflict is settled. This chain of policy measures is known as peace-building activities. Participation in peace- building activities in the world, particularly in Asia, is an important international contribution that Japan can make, and it will be a major pillar of Japan's foreign policy under the new government.
More concretely, first, the new government intends to mobilize the Self-Defense Forces for peace-building purposes. Japan has already sent the SDF to the U.N. PKO activities in Cambodia, the Golan Heights, and East Timor, where they played an important role in securing peace and stability as well as nation building. Taking advantage of the know-how thus obtained, Japan should play a much more active role in peace-building activities, which are increasingly in high demand.
To expand this kind of international contribution, we need to recognize that there is room for revisions in the basic principles on dispatch of the SDF. The five conditions for participation in U.N. PKO efforts, including that of the use of arms, will have to be reviewed, taking into consideration past experiences as well as international standards. It will be extremely important to take time to explain to neighboring Asian countries that this review will by no means contradict the constitutional banning of overseas military operations based on Japan's own judgment. Humanitarian assistance is very much in accord with the concept of human security, and it will be the basic principle for Japan to send SDF overseas promptly when the need occurs.
As far as participation in multilateral forces under U.N. resolution is concerned, the new government of Japan will determine its desirable scope as Japan accumulates experiences and insights through PKO operations. Japan's recent policy toward the war in Iraq has left behind important issues that need to be solved. One is how to demarcate between operations that require use of force and those that do not. The other is what Japan should do when international public opinion is split on the interpretation of a U.N. resolution justifying use of force. "Conditions to justify the use of force" has been a current theme of debate in the international community and a few important proposals have already emerged from this debate on such controversial issues as criteria regulating use of force associated with humanitarian intervention and under what conditions the U.N. Security Council can justify a preemptive strike as conduct of the right of self-defense. Taking account of the outcomes of these debates, the new government of Japan will exercise its political leadership in taking a step-by-step approach toward participation in the U.N.-sanctioned multilateral forces, forming a national consensus on its limitation.
Second, we should effectively mobilize civilian police forces to participate in the peace-building activities. As the peace-building activities proceed, it is customary that responsibility for enforcement is passed on from a multilateral force to the U.N. peacekeepers, and then to civilian police forces. Except for the operations in East Timor, since one policeman was killed in Cambodia, Japan has not allowed its civilian police forces to participate in PKO operations. This has led to greater dependence on the SDF for U.N. PKO activities. Japan should prepare police forces with special training for PKO activities and actively dispatch them to meet local needs in areas where order has been sufficiently restored.
Third, we should utilize ODA for peace-building activities. In peace- building activities, international cooperation by non-combatant groups, such as the peace corps, is also essential. Maintenance of peace and prevention of the recurrence of conflicts, for instance, call for fair and non-violent solutions to various conflicts among individuals and communities. The keys for this mechanism are firmly established democratic processes and the rule of law as well as economic development to mitigate societal dissatisfaction. Japan should pour its ODA into these areas to improve its skills in underpinning peace-building activities, which can be Japan's distinctive contribution.
Fourth, Japan should double its diplomatic efforts to promote peace-building activities. Small fire arms including the Karashinikov rifle and anti-personnel mines are the main weapons for massacres in many of the developing countries, so much so that such ammunitions have been christened the "weapons of mass destruction of developing countries." Japan should actively promote the international control of small fire arms including marking, by discouraging major exporters of these weapons including China and the United States. To ban the landmines, it is important for Japan to upgrade its diplomatic efforts to increase the number of signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty) as well as carry out its own concrete measures toward this goal and give relief to the victims. ODA can also be mobilized in this area in the form of financial assistance to NGOs active in this field and indigenous local movements. Japan should exercise leadership in calling international attention to the issue of child soldiers and in coordinating among countries concerned to promote the signing of an international agreement banning child soldiers.
3. Countering Proliferation of WMD and Terrorists
Since WMD, including nuclear arms, do not discriminate non-combatants from combatants and they are liable to lead to the total annihilation of mankind, they must not be tolerated under any pretext. As the first and only victim of nuclear attack, Japan owes it to the world to actively engage in the prevention of WMD proliferation. However, the cold reality is that nuclear arms reduction negotiations have been stagnant, the number of nuclear nations has grown, existing nuclear countries have developed new capabilities, and the black market for nuclear arms has prospered. We are walking farther away from the ideal of a nuclear-free world. The world is at the crossroad of whether we can prevent further proliferation of nuclear arms. It is the strong leadership of non-nuclear countries, including Japan, that is urgently called for to stop and reverse these trends. Japan must utilize all of its diplomatic resources to tackle this issue.
The new government of Japan will contribute to the early conclusion of the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) and persuade the United States, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and other nuclear countries to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), along with the implementation of the G8 Action Plan on Nonproliferation adopted at the 2004 Group of 8 (G8) summit. It will also be necessary to reform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Geneva Conference on Disarmament. In East Asia, the new government will make Japan and the Korean peninsula a nuclear-free-zone and, at the same time, persuade China to reduce its nuclear arms. The new government of Japan will establish a world-class think tank on nonproliferation and disarmament in Japan, inviting the participation of leading world experts, in order to make Japan the world center of nonproliferation and arms reduction policy research. The new government will also reorganize the citizens' movement against nuclear arms, which in the past was divided by partisan logic, and will encourage a larger grass-roots movement for nuclear disarmament within Japan. In cooperation and collaboration with the signatories of nuclear-free-zone treaties, mainly in the southern hemisphere, and international NGO networks, Japan should endeavor to make the reduction of reliance on nuclear weapons an international norm.
Terrorism is no longer a threat to specific countries but a detestable crime threatening global security. Today there exist more than forty failed states, both actual and potential. Failed states, whose restoration is a common interest of mankind, not only pose humanitarian challenges but also nurture terrorists. In the war on terrorism, Japan should put first priority on the fight to eliminate breeding grounds of terrorists. It should strive to arrest the rise of terrorism by preventing and restoring failed states through comprehensive and strategic economic assistance and the contribution of manpower. Japan should also play a role in having the diversified values and perspectives found in the international community reflected in the policy and programs of international organizations including the United Nations. The conflict between Israel and Palestine, said to be a cause of terrorism, has a chance for a peaceful resolution, with the support of the international community. Japan should provide more visible support, such as assistance to improve the living standards of the Palestinians, and creation of an environment in which the leaders of both Palestine and Israel can persuade their respective populations to work toward the realization of the Road Map.
Moreover, the new government of Japan will promote international cooperation against terrorism in a variety of areas including export control, proper law enforcement, intelligence gathering and analysis, and financial transactions. It also intends to use ODA to improve the police forces (internal security) and educational systems in developing countries, establishing an East Asian model for terrorism prevention. It will also endeavor to establish healthy cooperation with Islamic countries through policy dialogues with Islamic democratic parties in countries that have adopted parliamentary democracy.
4. Strengthening International Organizations
Most of the difficult problems facing the international community cannot be solved single-handedly by Japan or by certain alliances. To bring about a stable world peace, Japan should take the initiative in the enhancement of global governance. Global governance is a means by which international organizations, national governments, NGOs, and private corporations cooperatively respond to global issues. The very term "global governance" is hardly a household term yet, but the full understanding and promotion of this concept will be absolutely essential for the betterment of the international community.
This does not necessarily mean that today's international organizations are free of problems to be overcome. To effectively address such key issues as sustainable development, stable peace, nonproliferation of WMD, and terrorism, it is imperative to take measures to enhance global governance through international organizations, particularly the United Nations. But these international organizations including the United Nations also need to reform themselves. Bold reforms will be necessary to enable effective global governance within limited budgets. Objections to globalization are spreading mainly among developing countries, which overlap with arguments for the reform of the operations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. To be sure, all of the negative aspects of globalization are not necessarily attributable to the operations of the IMF and the World Bank. But it seems undeniable that there is room for improvement in their criteria for policy choice, including elimination of unfairness and injustice. Japan will sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and try to persuade the United States and others to do the same in order to strengthen its functions.
For Japan to take the leadership in these endeavors and to communicate diverse views from Asia to the United Nations, Japan must become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. This may not be easily achieved, but we will express our wish loud and clear and persistently aim at becoming a permanent member. As part of its preparation, the new government will train manpower that can make a contribution in international organizations and help them find employment in these organizations.
It will be Japan's basic strategy toward achieving enlightened national interest to pursue international peace and prosperity through multilayered foreign policy at all levels, starting with itself and then including Japan-U.S. cooperation, the East Asian Community, and international organizations.
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