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Dr. Titli Basu is Associate Fellow at the East Asia Centre. Her research interests include Japanese security, strategy and foreign policy; Japan and the Indo-Pacific; great power politics in East Asia; and India-Japan relations. Dr. Basu has published several research articles on these issues including in India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, Tamkang Journal of International Affairs, The Asan Forum, East Asia Forum, Asian Journal of Public Affairs, and Indian Foreign Affairs Journal. Her current research project in IDSA is on Japan’s Defence Industrial Policy Reform: Debates and Implications for International Cooperation. She completed her doctoral thesis from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She was associated with the Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo as a Visiting Research Fellow (November 2010 to October 2011). She was a recipient of the Japan Foundation fellowship in 2010. Previously she was with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan.
Japan’s Strategic Calculations: Constraints and Responses
As the East Asian regional order becomes fragmented, how is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe managing Tokyo’s strategic interests within the US-Japan-China relations?
Debating Security in Japan
Associate Fellow, IDSA, Dr Titli Basu’s research article, ‘Debating Security in Japan ’ was published in The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 30, No. 4, December 2018, 533－557.
Defending Japan: Reviewing the 2018 White Paper
Three key developments unfolded in Japan in August 2018: the Ministry of Defence (MOD) released its annual Defence White Paper; requested a 2.1 per cent increase in the 2019 budget; and instituted an Exploratory Committee on the Future of Self Defence Forces (SDF) with the objective of reviewing the current National Defence Program Guidelines (NDPG) and the Mid-Term Defence Program (MTDP). Analysing these developments in the backdrop of Prime Minister Abe’s top priorities—managing the United States (US)-Japan alliance under the Trump Presidency and delivering on the ‘great responsibility’ of redefining Japanese post-war security orientation—unpacks Tokyo’s key challenges. These are, essentially, balancing between sharing greater burden within the alliance framework to ensure regional security on one hand, and weighing regional sensitivities and deeply fractured domestic constituencies on the other.
A Review of India-Japan Defence Technology Cooperation
While broad agreement at the top leadership level has been easy to achieve, negotiations relating to defence equipment and technology cooperation have proved to be difficult, shaped as these are by a complex interplay of variables like cost-competitiveness, technology transfer and domestic politics.
India-Japan Relations in the Age of Indo-Pacific
Associate Fellow, IDSA, Dr Titli Basu’s article on India-Japan Relations, titled ‘India-Japan Relations in the Age of Indo-Pacific’ has been published in The Contemporary India Forum Quarterly Review No 38.
US-North Korea Summit: Singapore Round Goes to Chairman Kim
The summit brought out ambiguities in America’s policy towards denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula. To translate outcomes of the summit into concrete deliverables, Trump administration would not only have to clearly define its denuclearisation action plan in terms of goals, methodology and timeline but also bolster its alliance with South Korea and Japan.
China-India-Japan in the Indo-Pacific: Ideas, Interests and Infrastructure
Japan’s Belt and Road Puzzle, Decoded
Associate Fellow, IDSA, Dr Titli Basu’s article on Japan’s support to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), titled ‘Japan’s Belt and Road Puzzle Decoded’ was published in ‘The Diplomat’ on February 28, 2018.
The article argues that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is involved in a carefully considered attempt to discard a narrow approach — pursued in the case of the AIIB — and engage with China with the objective of shaping it as a responsible actor and upholding the highest standards of global governance in accordance with international norms.
Debating Security in Japan
Venue: Seminar Hall I (Second Floor), IDSA
India-Japan and ‘Confluence of the Two Seas’: Ten years on
The India-Japan ‘action-oriented partnership’ is founded on the pillars of mutuality of interests, shared universal values and commonality of vision in the Indo-Pacific.