
Céline PAJON
Research Fellow, Head of Japan Research, Center for Asian Studies, Ifri
Research Interests:
- Japanese foreign and defense policy
- Domestic political debates in Japan
- International relations and geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific
Celine Pajon researches and analyses Japan’s foreign and defense policy for Ifri since 2008. She also follows the major domestic political debates in Japan. She conducts researches on the evolving International Relations and geostrategic setting of the Indo-Pacific region. Céline Pajon is an International Reasearch Fellow with the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) in Tokyo, where she stayed to conduct several research fieldworks.In 2016, she is invited fellwo with the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA), the think tank of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She also lectured at INALCO (Langues’O) and is also regularly teaching at ENSTA and EPFL (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne). Céline Pajon holds a Master in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute of International Studies of Geneva and graduated from SciencesPo Lyon. She studied two years in Japan, at Waseda University and Osaka University. Among her publications outside Ifri are : “Japan’s Coast Guard and Maritime Self Defense Forces in the East China Sea. Can a black and white system adapt to a gray zone strategy?”, Asia Policy, n°23, January 2017;“Japan and France, Slowly but Surely Moving Forward on Security Cooperation”, The Diplomat, 6 February 2017 ; “What Role for Japan in Africa’s Security After Withdrawal from South Sudan?”, The Diplomat, 24 May 2017.
With the resignation of Prime Minister Abe, the future of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy has been called into question. Abe was indeed one of the key architects of this vision<...>
This essay offers a general assessment of Japan’s performance in the 2019 G20 and G7 Summits, held respectively in Osaka, Japan and Biarritz, France and looks at how Tokyo coordinated with its European partners (The European Union (EU) institutions and the EU Member States) in these...
In February 2020, the Ifri Center for Asian Studies and the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) held a conference on the Asian security environment.
What does Japan want in the Indo-Pacific? It can be tough to tell, because at the moment, Tokyo seems to be pursuing incompatible aims.
South East Asia is an area of utmost importance for Japan’s economic, political and security interests, amounting to “a core strategic interest” for Tokyo.
On June 26, French President Emmanuel Macron will make his first, what is deemed to be a long overdue visit to Japan, a year after his previous travels to Asia led him to China (January 2018), India (March 2018), and Australia (May 2018).
China increasingly sees its flagship foreign policy project as a tool for restructuring global governance and a vector for promoting a new form of globalization.
For decades, the Franco-Japanese partnership has essentially been characterised by a vibrant cultural exchange as well as by sound economic relations. Today Japan is France’s second-largest trading partner in Asia (after China) and its leading Asian investor.
On the occasion of the conference held on the 22 November 2018 marking the 160th anniversary of Franco-Japanese diplomatic relations, Ifri publishes two parallel...
The Asia–Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) — a Japan–India initiative to promote connectivity between Asia and East Africa and encourage joint projects in Africa — is often misrepresented. All too often, the AAGC is depicted as a political move aimed exclusively at countering China’s Belt and Road...
Officially, Japan has “national security” concerns about technology exports to South Korea. Unofficially, World War II still casts an ugly shadow.
Tokyo is ramping up international partnerships and investments to offer an alternative to Beijing’s signature foreign-policy project. For the first time in 15 years, Japan’s foreign minister last month paid a visit to the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka, shepherding a dozens-strong delegation...
On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved Japan’s parliament, the starting pistol for the snap elections he called a year early to get over a “national crisis.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first foreign leader to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump after his election. On Friday, Feb. 10, he will meet with President Trump, before spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Corea del Norte ha tratado esta semana de aumentar la presión para ser reconocida como una potencia nuclear con la prueba del pasado miércoles en la que aseguraba que empleó una bomba de hidrógeno. Y ha introducido un nuevo elemento en el gran juego de alianzas estratégicas y comerciales que...
Los actos que esta semana organiza China para conmemorar el 70 aniversario de su victoria ante Japón, coronados por un desfile militar en la plaza de Tiananmen, plantean un nuevo desafío a los lazos entre Pekín y Tokio, ya dañados en los últimos años por desavenencias históricas y...
Cet été marque le 70ème anniversaire de la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale avec le largage des bombes atomiques sur Hiroshima et Nagasaki en Août 1945. Alors que les relations entre la Chine et la Corée du Sud sont au beau fixe, Pékin et Séoul entretiennent des rapports...
Disputed rocks and Beijing’s bad behavior in the South China Sea dominate the headlines these days. But there’s another showdown over disputed islands in the Pacific that is increasingly casting a shadow over Asia-Pacific security: a bitter fight between Japan and Russia over the Kurils...
Intervention de Céline Pajon sur la politique de défense japonaise à l'émission CulturesMonde sur France Culture.
...Du 29 avril au 7 mai, Shinzo Abe, le chef du gouvernement conservateur japonais, effectue un tour d'Europe de neuf jours, se rendant successivement en Allemagne, en Angleterre, au Portugal, en Espagne, en France, et en Belgique.
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