School Days!

Tomorrow is my first day of school, which means that I will officially be a student again. I am excited about studying again! My class schedule will be interesting, as the classes are pretty much exactly what I am looking to study while here. My classes and class descriptions are as follows:

Japanese Language - Pretty much a refresher and continuation of my last Japanese studies.
Security & Conflict Resolution - This course will first give an introduction to modern security studies, the questions it asks, the concepts is has developed, and why they are important in order to better understand and analyze actual and potential conflicts and traditional and non-traditional security threats, particularly after the end of the Cold-War.
Public Policy - This course is a graduate seminar designed to introduce theories in studying public policy. This course will offer an analytical survey of various theoretical approaches in studying public policy and will read classic literature as well as recent empirical studies. It will mainly cover theoretical approaches such as new institutionalism, policy networks, and advocacy coalition network.
Ideas on Peace - The theme of this seminar course is "On Peace, Violence, Peace Studies." The course aims at understanding various types of pacifism and perspectives of peace. A special emphasis is laid upon the contribution of religious ideas to the promotion of world peace, taking up ideas of peace proffered by Gandhi and King. Another emphasis is in the understanding of Japan's postwar constitutional pacifism as well.

I talked to my advisor last Thursday who is a constitutional law professor. He is also excited about my proposed thesis topic concerning looking into Article 9 of Japan`s constitution which only allows Japan to have a self-defense force (forced upon Japan by America during the reconstruction of Japan and writing of the constitution after WWII) and the arguments around changing it so that Japan could have a military again. My advisor has already recommended some scholars doing work on the topic whom I should read and thinks he may be able to introduce me to some to pick their brains around the subject. That should definitely come in handy for later!

Last week was filled with days on campus being introduced to people on campus and various resources that they can provide. The orientation was very helpful, but after four days of being on campus and listening to many, many introductions, I was happy when Friday came around so that I could just rest! I know that when I return to campus tomorrow, it will be different since I will be in class - and not for the full day (except when in the library studying, which I will probably be in everyday).

I will definitely have another posting soon about my weekend, first day of classes and so on. Stay tuned!

JRG