The Kurillian Knot: A History of Japanese-Russian Border Negotiations

This book provides an answer to the mystery of why no peace treaty has yet been signed between Japan and Russia after more than sixty years since the end of World War Two. The author, a leading authority on Japanese-Russian diplomatic history, was trained at the Russian Institute of Columbia University. This volume contributes to our understanding of not only the intricacies of bilateral relations between Moscow and Tokyo, but, more generally, of Russia's and Japan's modes of foreign policy formation. The author also discusses the U.S. factor, which helped make Russia and Japan distant neighbors, and the threat from China, which might help these countries come closer in the near future. It would be hardly possible to discuss the future prospects of Northeast Asia without having first read this book.

Table of Contents:
@fmct:Contents @toc4:List of Illustrations xxx Preface xxx Introduction: Territorial Conflict xxx @toc2:1. Waking Up to the Concept of National Borders 1 2. Black Ship from the North 000 3. Territorial Demarcation by Force 000 4. Toward Normalization of Relations 000 5. Years of the Aging Soviet Leaders 000 6. The Gorbachev Years 000 7. The Yeltsin Years 000 8. The Putin Years 000 Conclusions 000 @toc4:Appendix: Joint Compendium of Documents on the History of Territorial Issue between Japan and Russia (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation) 000 Notes 000 About the Author 000 Index 000

About the Author :
Hiroshi Kimura is professor emeritus at Hokkaido University and at the International Center for Japanese Studies. His major publications in English include Distant Neighbors (2002) and International Negotiation: Actors, Structural Process, Values (1999), which he coedited.

Review :
"Kimura demonstrates accurate knowledge of all agreements and definitions, and he offers reasonable speculation about what Russian leaders were thinking when they made statements concerning the issue." - Margarita Karnysheva, The Russian Review. "The Kurillian Knot makes a useful addition to the Anglo-phone literature on Russo-Japanese relations. Its recapitulation of post-1956 negotiations in meticulous." - John J. Stephan, Journal of Asian Studies. "Hiroshi Kimura's manuscript, The Kurillian Knot, is an authoritative work that reflects that author's lifetime of experience studying the northern territorial dispute and Soviet and Russian foreign policy." - Peggy Falkenheim Meyer, Simon Fraser University "Reflecting Kimura's lifetime of experience studying the territorial dispute and Soviet and Russian foreign policy, this authoritative historical exegesis is both clear and accessible. Nowhere else will you find a more detailed look at the documents in the Joint Compendium published by the Russian and Japanese foreign ministries." - Peggy Meyer, Simon Fraser University "This is the most scholarly and comprehensive treatment yet seen of an issue that has bedeviled Japans relations with the Soviet Union/Russia for sixty-one years. The author includes very recent material and draws from a wide variety of sources, far outdoing anything else yet published in this field." - Geoffrey Jukes, Australian National University