Prof. Richard J Samuels

Ford International Professor of Political Science
Director, MIT-Japan Program (MISTI)

Primary DLC

Department of Political Science

MIT Room: E40-455

Areas of Interest and Expertise

Asia (Japanese Politics and Leadership, Asian Security, Political Economy, Comparative Politics)
Japan (Security, Politics, Public Policy, Political Leadership, Defense/Aerospace, International Education)
Italy (Political Leadership and Economic History)
Civil-Military Relations

Research Summary

Professor Samuels research includes :

(*) Japan’s Intelligence and Security: Examination of recent changes in the Japanese intelligence community and their relevance to national security strategy.

(*) Secrecy, Privacy, and International Relations: Project considers how norms about secrecy, privacy, surveillance, and transparency are generated and observed or transgressed—and how they affect international relations. It also considers how the new information ecology affects behaviors of states in the international system.

(*) Japan and the United States in East Asia: With the rise of China and the end of the Cold War, the great power quadrilateral in East Asia has shifted. While the Japan-US alliance continues to anchor regional stability, the domestic politics that support it in both countries are also shifting. This project explores how security policy choices are constrained and enabled by changing security policy discourses in Washington and Tokyo.

Recent Work