The international community is now at stake with serious challenges amidst historical changes in power balances and intensifying geopolitical competitions. Meanwhile, a host of issues such as climate change and infectious disease crises are emerging, requiring cross-border cooperation among nations. Today, we are in an era where confrontation and cooperation are intricately intertwined in international relations. We live in the world of a historical inflection point and in the face of the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War Ⅱ. For this reason, Japan is about to undergo a major shift in its postwar security policy. (Excerpt from "National Security Strategy," National Security Council, Cabinet Decision, December 16, 2022.)
In this lecture, we will compare and analyze the defense policies adopted in Japan and other countries in the world, and examine the current situation in which the conventional operational domains limited to land, sea, and air are expanding into space and cyberspace, the environmental security that has been attracting attention as a result of global warming, the issue of the Arctic Ocean whose strategic value is increasing due to melting ice, or the impact of various technological developments on defense policy. We will examine the impact of various technological developments on defense policy, such as the Arctic Ocean, which is becoming more strategically valuable due to melting ice, and give a lecture on how defense policy should be formulated to maintain peace.