Dr. Pascal Lottaz
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I'm a Swiss researcher and educator based in Tokyo. On this page you will find information about my academic work, learning resources, and educational materials. |
If you are a student go to the Lectures section to find class power points and materials. |
Biography
Pascal was born in 1985, in Fribourg, Switzerland. At the age of eighteen, he spent one year at a Japanese High School, in Wakayama prefecture. He studied Philosophy and History at The University of Fribourg and came to Tokyo for the first time in 2010 for an internship at the Minato City Office. He has obtained a master’s degree in Public Policy (2012) and a PhD in International Relations (2018), both at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Roppongi. Since 2019, Pascal is Assistant Professor for Neutrality Studies at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study.
Pascal’s research focuses on neutral states, diplomacy, and Japan before the Second World War. He has published two edited volumes on Neutrality in International Relations, articles about Swiss–Japanese diplomatic relations, and he is currently co-authoring a book on “Sweden, Japan and the Long Second World War (1931–1945).”
Pascal’s research focuses on neutral states, diplomacy, and Japan before the Second World War. He has published two edited volumes on Neutrality in International Relations, articles about Swiss–Japanese diplomatic relations, and he is currently co-authoring a book on “Sweden, Japan and the Long Second World War (1931–1945).”
Research
I'm mainly working on the study of neutrality as a concept in international relations. Why and how do neutral actors in the international system behave the way they do? How come that over millennia the "neutral idea" has been coming up again and again? I am also trying to understand the behavior of neutral actors in inter-state conflicts and their impact on the genesis and development of wars.
This topic used to be a significant concern of historians, scholars of international law, and political scientists but has fallen out of fashion after WWII. The Cold War bipolar security environment made the law and logic of neutrality—inventions of earlier centuries—largely redundant. Although the post-1945 era saw the unprecedented flourishing of nonaligned states, this loosely defined sister concept has also lost most of its usefulness after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dawn of the current unipolar security architecture.
Nevertheless, the historical record suggests that neutrality policies are ‘natural’ occurrences that survive not in the heads of theoreticians but on the chessboard of international power-politics. The nature of neutrality, meanwhile, changes with the nature of war, which would suggest that new approaches to war breed new approaches to neutrality. But do these observations hold true under any security environment? What are the limits of neutrality policies in terms of their systemic security function? What are their potentials? What are the humanitarian implications for the twenty-first century? And how are new neutral actors interpreting and managing their policy choices?
I am using a mix of historical case studies combined with statistical analysis of different neutralities to investigate these questions. The spectrum of my research project is broad, and I am as much interested in uncovering particular issues of individual neutralities, as I want to understand the global ramifications of nonaligned positions during negotiations, conflict, war, and in the global nuclear regime. I am working on several sub-projects to approach the overall goal of this research.
This topic used to be a significant concern of historians, scholars of international law, and political scientists but has fallen out of fashion after WWII. The Cold War bipolar security environment made the law and logic of neutrality—inventions of earlier centuries—largely redundant. Although the post-1945 era saw the unprecedented flourishing of nonaligned states, this loosely defined sister concept has also lost most of its usefulness after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dawn of the current unipolar security architecture.
Nevertheless, the historical record suggests that neutrality policies are ‘natural’ occurrences that survive not in the heads of theoreticians but on the chessboard of international power-politics. The nature of neutrality, meanwhile, changes with the nature of war, which would suggest that new approaches to war breed new approaches to neutrality. But do these observations hold true under any security environment? What are the limits of neutrality policies in terms of their systemic security function? What are their potentials? What are the humanitarian implications for the twenty-first century? And how are new neutral actors interpreting and managing their policy choices?
I am using a mix of historical case studies combined with statistical analysis of different neutralities to investigate these questions. The spectrum of my research project is broad, and I am as much interested in uncovering particular issues of individual neutralities, as I want to understand the global ramifications of nonaligned positions during negotiations, conflict, war, and in the global nuclear regime. I am working on several sub-projects to approach the overall goal of this research.
Research Projects
Sweden, Japan, and the Long Second World War, 1931–1945
Co-Authored monograph with Ingemar Ottosson
Expected for 2021, Routledge
Download Project Paper
Neutral Beyond the Cold: The Value of Neutral States to the Post-Cold War International System
Edited volume with Heinz Gärtner and Herbert R. Reginbogin
Expected for 2021, TBD
Download Project Paper
Switzerland, Japan, and the Long Second World War, 1931–1945
Monograph
Expected for 2022, TBD
The Neutrals and the Bomb: The Emergence of the Nonproliferation Regime outside the Blocks
Edited volume with Yoko Iwama
Expected for 2022, TBD
Neutrality in International Relations
Textbook
Expected for 2023, TBD
Co-Authored monograph with Ingemar Ottosson
Expected for 2021, Routledge
Download Project Paper
Neutral Beyond the Cold: The Value of Neutral States to the Post-Cold War International System
Edited volume with Heinz Gärtner and Herbert R. Reginbogin
Expected for 2021, TBD
Download Project Paper
Switzerland, Japan, and the Long Second World War, 1931–1945
Monograph
Expected for 2022, TBD
The Neutrals and the Bomb: The Emergence of the Nonproliferation Regime outside the Blocks
Edited volume with Yoko Iwama
Expected for 2022, TBD
Neutrality in International Relations
Textbook
Expected for 2023, TBD
Affiliations |
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Assistant Professor |
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Adjunct Professor |
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Secretary |
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Advisory Board Member |
