ABSTRACT
The Western canon of political reflection has been 25 centuries in the making. It is the richest and most profound tradition of political thought the world has ever known-or is likely ever to know. On this subject, Paul Valéry’s dictum that ‘in matters that can be taught, European culture is, in the strict sense, infinitely superior’ carries conviction.4 To bring the insights of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) and Michel Foucault (1926-1984) to bear on the theoretical foundations of twentieth-century Japanese pacifism is to affirm this truth.
