Author's Note Introduction 1. The Style and Substance of Treaty-Making 2. Negotiating Space: The Meaning of Yokohama 3. Negotiating Time: The Postponement Strategy 4. The Limits of Negotiation: Expulsion and Gunboats 5. New Horizons: Tariffs and Translations 6. Rethinking Negotiation: Moving toward Revision 7. Negotiating the Future: The Iwakura Mission in America and Britain Conclusion Appendix 1: Treaties of Friendship and Commerce Signed by the Tokugawa Bakufu and the Meiji Government Appendix 2: Key Japanese and Western Diplomats
In the mold of Ronald Toby's seminal work on early modern Japanese statecraft, Michael Auslin offers a superb study of Japanese diplomacy, 1858-1872. There can no longer be any excuse for viewing the Japanese as passive victims of the unequal treaties. Auslin demonstrates their success at manipulating the Western powers and achieving their principal goal--protecting Japan's territorial sovereignty. -- Warren I. Cohen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County In the first major reexamination of the 'opening of Japan' in decades, Auslin describes the changing diplomatic culture of Japan as the country's leaders sought to understand a world dominated by Western power, wealth, and ideas. Reflecting the latest scholarship on imperialism, the book treats Japan not as a passive victim of the West's coercive diplomacy but as a nation with its own agendas, strategies, and negotiating tactics. In addition, Auslin shows how Western powers were often willing to cooperate with Japan and help it incorporate itself into the globalizing world. Students of comparative imperialism, globalization, and Japanese foreign affairs will find this an indispensable work. -- Akira Iriye, Harvard University
Michael R. Auslin is Director of Japan Studies at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.
In the mold of Ronald Toby's seminal work on early modern Japanese
statecraft, Michael Auslin offers a superb study of Japanese
diplomacy, 1858-1872. There can no longer be any excuse for viewing
the Japanese as passive victims of the unequal treaties. Auslin
demonstrates their success at manipulating the Western powers and
achieving their principal goal--protecting Japan's territorial
sovereignty.
*Warren I. Cohen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County*
In the first major reexamination of the 'opening of Japan' in
decades, Auslin describes the changing diplomatic culture of Japan
as the country's leaders sought to understand a world dominated by
Western power, wealth, and ideas. Reflecting the latest scholarship
on imperialism, the book treats Japan not as a passive victim of
the West's coercive diplomacy but as a nation with its own agendas,
strategies, and negotiating tactics. In addition, Auslin shows how
Western powers were often willing to cooperate with Japan and help
it incorporate itself into the globalizing world. Students of
comparative imperialism, globalization, and Japanese foreign
affairs will find this an indispensable work.
*Akira Iriye, Harvard University*
Besides the merit of its specific subject, Auslin's succinct book
in a more general sense provides a significant dismantling of
historical and historiographical boundaries on a number of
levels...Auslin is a capable writer; his analysis is astute,
engaging and carefully crafted.
*Pacific Affairs*
Negotiating with Imperialism breaks new ground in the study of
modern Japanese diplomatic history. In it, Michael R. Auslin
presents a wealth of detail on Japanese foreign interactions
between 1858 and 1872 when Japanese and Western diplomats carried
out a series of hard-fought negotiations that defined Japan's place
in a new global environment. Following the long tradition of
diplomatic historians, Auslin grounds his work on a thorough
reading of British, American, and Japanese archival materials, but
he also offers a compelling interpretive framework based on the
premise of an evolving Japanese "culture of diplomacy."
*Monumenta Nipponica*
Many studies have been published on the bothumatsu period, making
it no longer easy for one scholar to discuss this entire span of
time within a single conceptual framework. Negotiating with
Imperialism blows some fresh air on to what had become the rather
stagnant atmosphere of this intensely studied subject...It is the
very clarity and persuasiveness of the book's perspectives on the
issues and history that stimulate us to present such alternative
interpretations. Without doubt, it will contribute to further
enlivening the study of the opening of Japan.
*Social Service Japan Journal*
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