John C. de Boer

John de Boer is a postdoctoral fellow in Japanese studies at FSI. Over the course of exploring the main socio-economic and political factors that have influenced Japan's relationship with Israel/Palestine in the twentieth century, Mr. de Boer has opened the door to the possibility of probing a broader time-space framework for thinking about the historical significance of Japan and Israel in their Asian contexts. His research aims to document the profound interconnections that exist between Japanese and Zionist intellectuals, activists and politicians on ideas related to colonialism, progress, cultural identity, democracy and security in order to assess the formative impact that both nations had on Asia's modern historical trajectory.

In addition to this historical approach to understanding transnational exchanges involving Japan, de Boer is also actively engaged in analyzing Japan's recent policy initiatives as they relate to human rights, militarization and armed conflict. Some of his work in this area has been published by the Japanese Institute of Global Communications and is available at http://www.glocom.org/map/alpha/index_ju.html#weekly_review He received a BA in political science from Wilfrid Laurier University (Ontario, Canada), an MA in international relations from the International University of Japan (Niigata, Japan), and a PhD in area studies from Tokyo University.