Will Reynolds

Time to do some archive-based teaching!

三菱重工 | 海上保安庁向け大型巡視船の命名・進水式を三菱重工マリタイムシステムズで実施3,500トン型巡視船「ひろしま」 三菱重工

A new Miyako-class has entered the water. The JCG 'Hiroshima'.

A 3,500-ton of the PL type (Patrol Vessel Large), it is equipped with a flight deck, water cannons and 2x Bofor 40mm systems.

Its origins are in the 2016 Budget, with the first entering the water in 2018.

www.mhi.com/jp/news/2509...

Can foreign policy be pragmatic and progressive? — New Diplomacy Project These are dark times for progressive foreign policy. We are moving towards an illiberal world order. In this climate, how can the UK advance progressive foreign policy goals?  Many UK policymake...

As @teamlabouruk.bsky.social marks its one year anniversary in office, Prof @jamiegaskarth.bsky.social & Prof @jasonralph.bsky.social ask the question "can foreign policy be pragmatic and progressive?"

www.newdiplomacy.uk/articles/kar...

I suspect folks aren't going to like the suggestive nature of the document (it is an external 'suggesting' document after all).

Lots of room for interpretation and re-interpretation from all involved from policy through to implementation.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683d89...

Having been around with The Centre for Grand Strategy for almost eight years now (in one form or another), am excited to see it take this next step as part of a wider community!

📢 Exciting news! The Centre for Grand Strategy and the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation are merging to form a new hub within @warstudieskcl.bsky.social: the Centre for Statecraft & National Security @csns-uk.bsky.social

➡️ You can find more information here: csns.uk

‘Refusing to Budge’ | 11 | The Role of the Domestic in Low-Intensity M This chapter engages with the roles the domestic spheres inhabit during low-intensity maritime conflicts. During such conflicts, analysts often focus upon the

For more on how fish can make the public rather barmy at times, see:

William Reynolds,‘Refusing to Budge’ | 11 | The Role of the Domestic in Low-Intensity Maritime Conflict - A Cod Wars Perspective.

www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Happy Easter folks!

A thoroughly enjoyable Staff Ride (my first on the teaching side) with the U.K. Defence Academy. Great colleagues and great course members. Hope to see some of the latter on the Advanced Staff Course.

@easgwarwick.bsky.social @dsdkings.bsky.social @warstudieskcl.bsky.social @thejapansociety.bsky.social

Would just like to thanks @kclcgs.bsky.social
and @leverhulmetrust.bsky.social for the support to put this article together.

End/

Ultimately, this traces a small, yet important, part of the evolving Anglo-Japanese relationship. It is very different to the days of the Alliance, both then and today. But the relationship of equals today is build on the backs of policymakers in this period. 8/

That being said, the difficulty of 'penetrating' Japanese culture and language meant that the specialists continued to hold much sway. Individuals like Sir Hugh Cortazzi could and did bring greater expertise and cohesion to Britain's approach to Japan. 7/

Yet, as Japan's importance grew, so too did the centralisation of shaping policy towards it in British circles. What started as mostly a peripheral affair, limited to specialists and diplomats, soon regularly featured in Cabinet Committees. 6/

Margaret Thatcher, for example, was willing to simultaneously ignore her angry back bentchers on Nissan investment in Sunderland and berate the Japanese mercilessly for tariffs on Whiskey exports. This state of affairs would not begin to die down until the late-1980s. 5/

There was no specific 'plan' to follow to achieve this. Rather, the fight between those favouring greater alignment and those focusing on domestic imperatives was won and lost depending on the context of the time and case study at hand. 4/

British policymakers did actively strategise towards Japan, aiming to balance the tensions between the economic/domestic imperatives of safeguarding industry and jobs *against* the Japanese Phenomenon, whilst simultaneously not pushing Japan out of the Western orbit. 3/

Whilst much scholarly attention has focused on the inflection point of the 1970s for Britain and the West as a whole, little has looked at Britain's view of the "third pillar of the West", Japan. 2/

Facing the ‘Rogue Elephant’: The Evolution of British Strategy Towards Japan in the 1970s and 1980s By the 1970s, Japan had become a key player in international relations. Less than two decades after the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the formal end of the Second World War and Japanese occu...

Am happy to say my first academic peer-reviewed journal has just been published with Diplomacy & Statecraft:

'Facing the ‘Rogue Elephant’: The Evolution of British Strategy Towards Japan in the 1970s and 1980s

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Not all the recommendations may be agreed with - three-star Chiefs anyone? - but it provides tangible reform options based off a thorough exploration of Defence.

Also, notably, Sir Richard Barrons - one of the SDR Triumvirate - wrote the foreword.

We Need to Talk About Defence Based on a distinguished 35-year career in the RAF as an Air Commodore, Andrew R. Curtis highlights what is wrong with the way defence is managed today, and pre…

With the possibility of an uplift in Defence doing the rounds, I cannot recommend enough Andrew Curtis' book 'We Need to Talk About Defence' on managing the Defence Enterprise.

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/we-need-t...

UK-India defence agreements boost ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ ambition The UK-India strategic partnership has taken another major step forward with the formal launch of Defence Partnership – India (DP-I) and the signing of several defence agreements at Aero India 2025.

Northern Ireland seems to be making rather effective inroads into India. First Queen's University Belfast opens up a new campus in India and now Thales UK's LMM (manufactured in N Ireland) is being procured. www.gov.uk/government/n...

New satellite deal to boost military operations, jobs and growth Armed forces personnel will have access to the latest space-based imagery for military operations, following a deal signed for a new satellite system, named Oberon.

Always some good news about to lighten the gloom www.gov.uk/government/n...

Headline: Ex-Foreign Office cat starts job in Bermuda Palmerston, formerly the chief mouser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, sits next to a folder with the crest of Bermuda on it. Writer: Helen Catt. Political correspondent

Nominative determinism of the day

Looking forward to chatting about Britain, Japan and the Cold War next week!

Looking forward to chatting about Britain, Japan and the Cold War next week!

🚨Research Seminar

The EASG is delighted to host Dr. William Reynolds @warstudent.bsky.social from @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social

🗺️ 'From Oslo to Tokyo: Britain's Cold War Strategy and Japan'

📅 February 4th, 2025 - 2.15-3.30PM (hybrid)

More info at tinyurl.com/48puxnzc or easg@warwick.ac.uk

A 'Partner' nation - as opposed to a full treaty member - would be more workable for GCAP. Perhaps more cooperation in the systems around the main airframe? That being said, the trilateral members will need to make sure this does not negatively effect timetables.

Interesting little commemoration for the 75th year since VJ Day from @gwr.com

Commemorates Tulbahadur Pun, 3rd Battalion, 6 Gurkha Rifles, who reached a bridge at Mogaung in Burma (now Myanmar), on his own, after his section was wiped out on the charge. Awarded the VC.

Inauguration of the independent Mission of Japan to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (15 Jan 2025)

www.mofa.go.jp/press/releas...