| 研究実績の概要 |
This was a year for foundational work on the project, largely in collecting resources related to grand strategy, the politics of the pandemic, COVID-19 strategies in individual countries, and arranging for suitable research assistance. This has been important for several reasons, but mostly because COVID-19 represented a fundamentally new factor in international relations, as well as profound risk and opportunity particularly in the Asia-Pacific. Its long-term effects might ultimately be viewed as minimal, especially if no country can credibly claim to be a singular "success" story, but the competition to build narratives has been fierce.
Among three of the countries that are central to the project, major shifts in policies and debates about the pandemic have been transformational: the implementation of the National Preparedness Plan in the US in 2022, the relaxation of travel restrictions and other advisories in Japan, and the rapid change, following a catastrophic wave of infections, from a "zero COVID" to more flexible containment policies in China. All of these will bear scrutiny in the coming years.
The key goal has been to collect documentation and scholarship on the topic, both to prepared the literature review that will accompany any published outcomes and also to establish the nature of debates and priorities especially among policy actors often engaged in narrative construction.
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| 現在までの達成度 (区分) |
現在までの達成度 (区分)
2: おおむね順調に進展している
理由
This year was mostly dedicated to the collection of published sources and surveys of available data regarding the policies and diplomatic stances of several key nations in considering their COVID strategies. Two elements are particularly notable. First, much of the American literature -- which plays a substantial global role because of the weight of American universities and institutions -- focuses on polarization, due to the peculiar experience recent American politics. Second, rapid changes in policies and positions in East Asia have complicated earlier efforts to craft images of national success. Finally, the constructivist literature has tackled COVID-19 but often through repetition of existing preoccupations and concerns.
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| 今後の研究の推進方策 |
This year, I will rely largely on the participation and help of a multilingually gifted research assistant to work with documents in Chinese and Korean to engage key texts and issues in each of those nations. I hope to combine those insights with those based on experiences primarily in English-speaking countries and Japan, and to begin to map out narrative strategies for explaining and accounting for differential levels and criteria of success in responding to the pandemic. I will combine this with my ongoing research on narrative and status.
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| 次年度使用額が生じた理由 |
During the course of this year's research, I determined that I should save some of the funds for research assistance this academic year, particularly because of my need for specialized assistance given the linguistic and conceptual requirements of the research. I located an assistant who has been working with me since April 2023.
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