Chalmers Johnson

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Chalmers Johnson
Chalmers Johnson

Chalmers Ashby Johnson is an author and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He is also president and co-founder of the Japan Policy Research Institute, an organization promoting public education about Japan and Asia. He has written numerous books including, most recently, three examinations of the consequences of American Empire: Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire, and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic.

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[edit] Biography

Johnson was born in 1931 in Phoenix, Arizona. He earned a B.A. degree in Economics in 1953 and a M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science in 1957 and 1961 respectively. All of his degrees were from the University of California, Berkeley. During the Korean War, Johnson served as a naval officer in Japan. He taught political science at the University of California from 1962 until he retired from teaching in 1992. He was best known early in his career for scholarship about China and Japan.

Johnson set the agenda for ten or fifteen years in social science scholarship on China with his book on peasant nationalism. His book MITI and the Japanese Miracle, on the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry was the preeminent study of the country's development and created the bustling subfield of what could be called the political economy of development. He coined the term "developmental state." As a public intellectual, he first led the "Japan revisionists" who critiqued American neoliberal economics with Japan as a model, but also attacked Japan for protectionism. During this period, Johnson acted as a consultant for the Office of National Estimates, part of the CIA, contributing to analysis of China and Maoism.[1]

Johnson was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976. He served as Director of the Center for Chinese Studies and Chair of the Political Science Department at Berkeley, and held a number of important academic posts in area studies. He was a strong believer in the importance of language and historical training for doing serious research. Late in his career he became well known as a critic of "rational choice" approaches, particularly in the study of Japanese politics and political economy.

Johnson is today best known as a sharp critic of what he sees as American imperialism. His book Blowback won a prize in 2001 from the Before Columbus Foundation, and was re-issued in an updated version in 2004. Sorrows of Empire, published in 2004, updated the evidence and argument from Blowback for the post-9/11 environment and Nemesis concludes the trilogy. Johnson was featured in the Eugene Jarecki-directed film Why We Fight, which won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

[edit] the Blowback trilogy

Johnson believes the enforcement of American hegemony over the world constitutes a new form of global empire. Whereas traditional empires maintained control over subject peoples via colonies, since World War II the US has developed a vast system of hundreds of military bases around the world where it has strategic interests. A long-time Cold Warrior, Johnson experienced a political awakening after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, noting that instead of demobilizing its armed forces, the US accelerated its reliance on military solutions to problems both economic and political. The result of this militarism (as distinct from actual domestic defense) is more terrorism against the US and its allies, the loss of core democratic values at home, and an eventual disaster for the American economy.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Conspiracy at Matsukawa (1972)
  • Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power (1962) (ISBN 0-8047-0074-5)
  • Revolutionary Change (1982) ISBN 0-316-46730-8
  • MITI and the Japanese Miracle (1982)
  • An Instance of Treason: Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring (1990)
  • Japan: Who Governs? -- The Rise of the Developmental State (1995)
  • Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (2000, rev. 2004) ISBN 0-8050-6239-4
  • The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (2004) ISBN 0-8050-7004-4
  • Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2007) ISBN 0-8050-7911-4

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Nic Paget-Clarke, 2004, "Interview with Chalmers Johnson Part 2. From CIA Analyst to Best-Selling Scholar" (In Motion Magazine). Access date: December 5, 2007.

[edit] External links