Minami Kazushi

Main Research Areas

International History, National Security, Public Diplomacy, Energy Diplomacy, Nuclear Strategy, U.S.-China Relations

Research Overview

Kazushi Minami is a historian of the contemporary Asia-Pacific. I earned my Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin before joining OSIPP in 2019. Drawing on English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language sources, my research investigates various aspects of international relations in East Asia to foster a deeper understanding of the region from both historical and policy perspectives.

My first book, People’s Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed U.S.-China Relations during the Cold War, was published open-access by Cornell University Press (https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501774157/peoples-diplomacy/). It examines how Americans and Chinese from different walks of life—businesspeople, scientists, students, tourists, athletes, and artists, among others—rebuilt U.S.-China relations in the 1970s in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.

I am now at work on a second book, The Pivot: Oil, Geopolitics, and the Miracle of East Asia. It analyzes how oil shaped and reshaped the postwar international order of East Asia. It shows that the search for oil at home and abroad, onshore and offshore, precipitated major diplomatic realignments and entrenched U.S.-led global capitalism in the region.

For the third project, I am envisioning a study on postwar Japan’s identity formation in the 1960s, a decade of political stability, economic growth, and social unrest. Foregrounding a diverse host of historical actors, from politicians to activists, intellectuals to housewives, this project answers the crucial question: Where did today’s Japan come from?

My scholarship has received the 2022 M. Matsushita Academic Award and the 2024 Osaka University Award. I have published peer-reviewed journal articles in Diplomatic History, Cold War History, the Journal of Cold War Studies, and the Journal of Women’s History and chapters in several edited volumes. I have also written for media outlets such as the Washington Post’s Made by History and the Wilson Center’s Sources and Methods.

Message to Students

At OSIPP, I advise graduate students from around the world, who work on diverse subjects in history, area studies, and qualitative political science, with geographical focus on the Asia-Pacific. I welcome all students who are eager to explore the intersection of history and policy.