Alexander Bukh
Biographic Data
| ID | 2113502 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexander Bukh |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexander |
| FAMILY NAME | Bukh |
| SIGNATURE | BUKH A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6708-1624 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
South Korea’s Public Diplomacy towards Japan during the 1973–1975 Crisis: Strategic Narratives and Structural Constraints
This article examines South Korea’s strategic communication directed at a Japanese audience during the 1973–1975 crisis in bilateral relations through an analysis of a journal established by the Korean government as a tool of public diplomacy and directed at a Japanese audience. Despite Seoul’s acute dependence on Japanese economic aid and technology, and its stated goal of promoting partnership and cooperation, the narratives presented in the jo…
Embodying the state differently in a Westphalian world: An ontological exit for the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute
The endurance of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute since the 1970s is indicative of the grip that the Westphalian narrative has on the political imagination of academics and practitioners alike. Both materialist and constructivist scholarship has so far struggled to explain the dispute given its limited strategic and unclear symbolic value. Yet recent work in ontological security studies (OSS) has pointed to the intrinsic connection between phys…
Soviet Union’s Japan: Nihonjinron in the era of late socialism
This article focuses on the Soviet strand of nihonjinron, or the theory of Japaneseness, which gained popularity in USSR in the 1970s–1980s. Its purpose is twofold. The first is to contribute to the literature on Soviet perceptions of Japan by critically examining the overwhelmingly popular essentialist discourse on Japan’s culture and national character. The second goal is to contribute to the literature on nihonjinron which so far has focused m…
The productive power of rising China and national identities in South Korea and Thailand
Drawing on the insights of the constructivist school approach, this article joins the debate on the effects of rising China in Asia. The existing scholarship devoted to no-material aspects of China’s rise focused either on China’s ‘soft power’ initiatives or their reception by certain audiences. In this article, rising China and its governance model, are construed as a form of productive power, one that is expected to bring about not only shifts …
European–East Asian Borders in Translation
Some may find the title of this edited volume quite misleading, as most of its chapters do not deal with borders between Europe and East Asia or with translation in the conventional sense. In the I
Russia's Image and Soft Power Resources in Southeast Asia: Perceptions among Young Elites in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam
Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs - Volume 38, Number 3, December 2016
Revisiting Japan’s Cultural Diplomacy: A Critique of the Agent-Level Approach to Japan’s Soft Power
In this article I join the debate on Japan’s soft power and cultural diplomacy. Most of the current scholarship focuses on Japan’s agency and implies that through a skillfully crafted policy that utilizes its cultural resources, Japan can enhance its soft power. I question the utility of this agent-based approach. I suggest that cultural diplomacy is not simply a matter of diplomatic craftsmanship; it reflects discursively constructed national id…
Shimane Prefecture, Tokyo and the territorial dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima: Regional and national identities in Japan
This paper joins the debate on Japan's territorial dispute with South Korea over the Dokdo/Takeshima islets. Informed by the ontological security framework of analysis, this paper seeks to explain the decision to adopt the ‘Takeshima Day’ ordinance by the Shimane Prefectural Assembly and the subsequent ascendance of ‘Takeshima’ to the fore of Japan's identity construction vis-à-vis the Korean ‘other’. In this paper, I distinguish between two proc…
Russo-Japanese Relations, 1905–1917: From Enemies to Allies by Peter Berton (review)
Reviewed by: Russo-Japanese Relations, 1905–1917: From Enemies to Allies by Peter Berton Alexander Bukh (bio) Russo-Japanese Relations, 1905–1917: From Enemies to Allies. By Peter Berton. Routledge, London, 2011. xix, 203 pages. $155.00, cloth; $145.00, E-book. Peter Berton, the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the University of Southern California, has been one of the key figures in English-language scholarship on J…
Constructing Japan's 'Northern Territories: Domestic Actors, Interests, and the Symbolism of the Disputed Islands
This article seeks to contribute both to the scholarly debate on Japan's territorial dispute with USSR/Russia and to the broader body of academic literature devoted to the ideational factor in foreign policy. By focusing on the formative years of the dispute and examining the variety of symbolic meanings attached to the Soviet-occupied islands by the domestic actors, this article examines the process of the emergence of the idea of the ‘Northern …
Reception of the revisionist historical manga in Japan: A case study of university students
Since the emergence of the so-called ‘liberal historiography’ in the mid 1990s, historical revisionism in Japan has been one of the most hotly debated academic topics in Japanese studies. While the majority of the current scholarship focuses on the structure of the revisionist texts and the individuals behind them, the case study presented in this paper seeks to explore the way young readers in Japan actually receive the revisionist texts, with a…
Ainu Identity and Japan's Identity: The Struggle for Subjectivity
This paper seeks to contribute to the academic debate on the contemporary identity of the Ainu. Ainu, the indigenous people of what today constitutes part of northern Japan, as well as the Russian Kurile Islands and parts of the island of Sakhalin, became the first subjects of modernizing Japan's expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century. In general, the Ainu's history, culture, and the struggle for recognition as indigenous people a…
Russian Perceptions of Japan and China in the Aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution: A Comparative Case Study of Boris Pil'niak's Travelogue
This article joins the debate on Russian national identity and the role of the Orient in its construction. It analyzes Boris Pil'niak's travelogues written in the mid-1920s from Japan and China. Pil'niak was one of the most widely read writers in post-revolutionary Russia and one of the first Soviet writers to travel to China and Japan. While explicitly refusing to identify himself with the Marxist-Leninist ideology, Pil'niak was sympathetic to t…
Japan's National Identity and Foreign Policy
This book is the first attempt to examine Japan’s relations with Russia from the perspective of national identity; providing a new interpretation of Japan’s perceptions of Russia and foreign policy. Alexander Bukh focuses on the construction of the Japanese self using Russia as the other, examining the history of bilateral relations and comparisons between the Russian and Japanese national character. The first part of the book examines the format…
Japan's National Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia as Japan's 'Other'
1. Exploring Japan's Identity 2. Constructions of Japan's Self 3. Japan's Soviet Union, Japan's 4. Ainu, and Japan's Quest for Territories 5. Shiba's Original Forms of Japan and 6. Newly Born Russia and Japan 7. The Idea of the Northern Territories. Conclusion
Identity, Foreign Policy and the `Other: Japan's `Russia
This article examines contemporary Japan's identity construction through the self/other lens, focusing on USSR/Russia as Japan's `other'. It identifies two main constitutive dimensions, political and socio-cultural, along which Japan's identity vis-a-vis the Soviet Union was constructed during the Cold War years. The origins and the nature of these constructs are examined in the first part of this case study. Unlike the existent Japan-related con…
Japan's National Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia as Japan's 'Other' (Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge)
Japan's History Textbooks Debate: National Identity in Narratives of Victimhood and Victimization
This article examines the narratives of wartime victimhood and victimization in Japan's junior high school history textbooks in the early 1980s and in contemporary times from the perspective of national identity. Unlike most existing scholarship, this article argues that the narrative regarding the wartime suffering of the Japanese people can be seen as inducing a critical perspective on imperial wars and their disastrous impact on ordinary peopl…
Shimane Prefecture, Tokyo and the territorial dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima: Regional and national identities in Japan
This paper joins the debate on Japan's territorial dispute with South Korea over the Dokdo/Takeshima islets. Informed by the ontological security framework of analysis, this paper seeks to explain the decision to adopt the ‘Takeshima Day’ ordinance by the Shimane Prefectural Assembly and the subsequent ascendance of ‘Takeshima’ to the fore of Japan's identity construction vis-à-vis the Korean ‘other’. In this paper, I distinguish between two proc…
Constructing Japan's 'Northern Territories: Domestic Actors, Interests, and the Symbolism of the Disputed Islands
This article seeks to contribute both to the scholarly debate on Japan's territorial dispute with USSR/Russia and to the broader body of academic literature devoted to the ideational factor in foreign policy. By focusing on the formative years of the dispute and examining the variety of symbolic meanings attached to the Soviet-occupied islands by the domestic actors, this article examines the process of the emergence of the idea of the ‘Northern …
Identity, Foreign Policy and the `Other: Japan's `Russia
This article examines contemporary Japan's identity construction through the self/other lens, focusing on USSR/Russia as Japan's `other'. It identifies two main constitutive dimensions, political and socio-cultural, along which Japan's identity vis-a-vis the Soviet Union was constructed during the Cold War years. The origins and the nature of these constructs are examined in the first part of this case study. Unlike the existent Japan-related con…
Japan's History Textbooks Debate: National Identity in Narratives of Victimhood and Victimization
This article examines the narratives of wartime victimhood and victimization in Japan's junior high school history textbooks in the early 1980s and in contemporary times from the perspective of national identity. Unlike most existing scholarship, this article argues that the narrative regarding the wartime suffering of the Japanese people can be seen as inducing a critical perspective on imperial wars and their disastrous impact on ordinary peopl…
The productive power of rising China and national identities in South Korea and Thailand
Drawing on the insights of the constructivist school approach, this article joins the debate on the effects of rising China in Asia. The existing scholarship devoted to no-material aspects of China’s rise focused either on China’s ‘soft power’ initiatives or their reception by certain audiences. In this article, rising China and its governance model, are construed as a form of productive power, one that is expected to bring about not only shifts …
Ainu Identity and Japan's Identity: The Struggle for Subjectivity
This paper seeks to contribute to the academic debate on the contemporary identity of the Ainu. Ainu, the indigenous people of what today constitutes part of northern Japan, as well as the Russian Kurile Islands and parts of the island of Sakhalin, became the first subjects of modernizing Japan's expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century. In general, the Ainu's history, culture, and the struggle for recognition as indigenous people a…
Embodying the state differently in a Westphalian world: An ontological exit for the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute
The endurance of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute since the 1970s is indicative of the grip that the Westphalian narrative has on the political imagination of academics and practitioners alike. Both materialist and constructivist scholarship has so far struggled to explain the dispute given its limited strategic and unclear symbolic value. Yet recent work in ontological security studies (OSS) has pointed to the intrinsic connection between phys…
Japan's History Textbooks Debate: National Identity in Narratives of Victimhood and Victimization
This article examines the narratives of wartime victimhood and victimization in Japan's junior high school history textbooks in the early 1980s and in contemporary times from the perspective of national identity. Unlike most existing scholarship, this article argues that the narrative regarding the wartime suffering of the Japanese people can be seen as inducing a critical perspective on imperial wars and their disastrous impact on ordinary peopl…
Japan's National Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia as Japan's 'Other' (Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge)
Japan's National Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia as Japan's 'Other'
1. Exploring Japan's Identity 2. Constructions of Japan's Self 3. Japan's Soviet Union, Japan's 4. Ainu, and Japan's Quest for Territories 5. Shiba's Original Forms of Japan and 6. Newly Born Russia and Japan 7. The Idea of the Northern Territories. Conclusion
Identity, Foreign Policy and the `Other: Japan's `Russia
This article examines contemporary Japan's identity construction through the self/other lens, focusing on USSR/Russia as Japan's `other'. It identifies two main constitutive dimensions, political and socio-cultural, along which Japan's identity vis-a-vis the Soviet Union was constructed during the Cold War years. The origins and the nature of these constructs are examined in the first part of this case study. Unlike the existent Japan-related con…
Japan's National Identity and Foreign Policy
This book is the first attempt to examine Japan’s relations with Russia from the perspective of national identity; providing a new interpretation of Japan’s perceptions of Russia and foreign policy. Alexander Bukh focuses on the construction of the Japanese self using Russia as the other, examining the history of bilateral relations and comparisons between the Russian and Japanese national character. The first part of the book examines the format…
Russian Perceptions of Japan and China in the Aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution: A Comparative Case Study of Boris Pil'niak's Travelogue
This article joins the debate on Russian national identity and the role of the Orient in its construction. It analyzes Boris Pil'niak's travelogues written in the mid-1920s from Japan and China. Pil'niak was one of the most widely read writers in post-revolutionary Russia and one of the first Soviet writers to travel to China and Japan. While explicitly refusing to identify himself with the Marxist-Leninist ideology, Pil'niak was sympathetic to t…
Constructing Japan's 'Northern Territories: Domestic Actors, Interests, and the Symbolism of the Disputed Islands
This article seeks to contribute both to the scholarly debate on Japan's territorial dispute with USSR/Russia and to the broader body of academic literature devoted to the ideational factor in foreign policy. By focusing on the formative years of the dispute and examining the variety of symbolic meanings attached to the Soviet-occupied islands by the domestic actors, this article examines the process of the emergence of the idea of the ‘Northern …
Reception of the revisionist historical manga in Japan: A case study of university students
Since the emergence of the so-called ‘liberal historiography’ in the mid 1990s, historical revisionism in Japan has been one of the most hotly debated academic topics in Japanese studies. While the majority of the current scholarship focuses on the structure of the revisionist texts and the individuals behind them, the case study presented in this paper seeks to explore the way young readers in Japan actually receive the revisionist texts, with a…
Ainu Identity and Japan's Identity: The Struggle for Subjectivity
This paper seeks to contribute to the academic debate on the contemporary identity of the Ainu. Ainu, the indigenous people of what today constitutes part of northern Japan, as well as the Russian Kurile Islands and parts of the island of Sakhalin, became the first subjects of modernizing Japan's expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century. In general, the Ainu's history, culture, and the struggle for recognition as indigenous people a…
Russo-Japanese Relations, 1905–1917: From Enemies to Allies by Peter Berton (review)
Reviewed by: Russo-Japanese Relations, 1905–1917: From Enemies to Allies by Peter Berton Alexander Bukh (bio) Russo-Japanese Relations, 1905–1917: From Enemies to Allies. By Peter Berton. Routledge, London, 2011. xix, 203 pages. $155.00, cloth; $145.00, E-book. Peter Berton, the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the University of Southern California, has been one of the key figures in English-language scholarship on J…
Revisiting Japan’s Cultural Diplomacy: A Critique of the Agent-Level Approach to Japan’s Soft Power
In this article I join the debate on Japan’s soft power and cultural diplomacy. Most of the current scholarship focuses on Japan’s agency and implies that through a skillfully crafted policy that utilizes its cultural resources, Japan can enhance its soft power. I question the utility of this agent-based approach. I suggest that cultural diplomacy is not simply a matter of diplomatic craftsmanship; it reflects discursively constructed national id…
Shimane Prefecture, Tokyo and the territorial dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima: Regional and national identities in Japan
This paper joins the debate on Japan's territorial dispute with South Korea over the Dokdo/Takeshima islets. Informed by the ontological security framework of analysis, this paper seeks to explain the decision to adopt the ‘Takeshima Day’ ordinance by the Shimane Prefectural Assembly and the subsequent ascendance of ‘Takeshima’ to the fore of Japan's identity construction vis-à-vis the Korean ‘other’. In this paper, I distinguish between two proc…
European–East Asian Borders in Translation
Some may find the title of this edited volume quite misleading, as most of its chapters do not deal with borders between Europe and East Asia or with translation in the conventional sense. In the I
Russia's Image and Soft Power Resources in Southeast Asia: Perceptions among Young Elites in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam
Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs - Volume 38, Number 3, December 2016
The productive power of rising China and national identities in South Korea and Thailand
Drawing on the insights of the constructivist school approach, this article joins the debate on the effects of rising China in Asia. The existing scholarship devoted to no-material aspects of China’s rise focused either on China’s ‘soft power’ initiatives or their reception by certain audiences. In this article, rising China and its governance model, are construed as a form of productive power, one that is expected to bring about not only shifts …
Embodying the state differently in a Westphalian world: An ontological exit for the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute
The endurance of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute since the 1970s is indicative of the grip that the Westphalian narrative has on the political imagination of academics and practitioners alike. Both materialist and constructivist scholarship has so far struggled to explain the dispute given its limited strategic and unclear symbolic value. Yet recent work in ontological security studies (OSS) has pointed to the intrinsic connection between phys…
Soviet Union’s Japan: Nihonjinron in the era of late socialism
This article focuses on the Soviet strand of nihonjinron, or the theory of Japaneseness, which gained popularity in USSR in the 1970s–1980s. Its purpose is twofold. The first is to contribute to the literature on Soviet perceptions of Japan by critically examining the overwhelmingly popular essentialist discourse on Japan’s culture and national character. The second goal is to contribute to the literature on nihonjinron which so far has focused m…
South Korea’s Public Diplomacy towards Japan during the 1973–1975 Crisis: Strategic Narratives and Structural Constraints
This article examines South Korea’s strategic communication directed at a Japanese audience during the 1973–1975 crisis in bilateral relations through an analysis of a journal established by the Korean government as a tool of public diplomacy and directed at a Japanese audience. Despite Seoul’s acute dependence on Japanese economic aid and technology, and its stated goal of promoting partnership and cooperation, the narratives presented in the jo…
Political science (17 works) · Politics (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Japanese History and Culture (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · History (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Aesthetics (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · National identity (6 works)