WATANABE Shun

Senior Researcher

Expertise

Politics and security in the Mashreq Region radical jihadist movements

WATANABE Shun is a Senior Researcher at the JIME Center, the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ). His field of expertise includes politics and security in the Mashreq Region and analysis of radical jihadist movements. He obtained Ph.D. in Area Studies from the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS), Kyoto University, in 2018. After finishing his doctoral studies, he joined Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, as a Sasakawa Peace Foundation Fellow from 2018-2020. In his doctoral and post-doctoral studies, he examined authoritarian politics in the Middle East monarchies, focusing on the Jordanian monarchy. He joined JIME Center, IEEJ, in 2021.

2022–present Senior Researcher, JIME Center, IEEJ
2022 Researcher, JIME Center, IEEJ
2021–2022 Research Fellow, JIME Center, IEEJ
2018–2020 Sasakawa Peace Foundation Fellow (Visiting Research Fellow), Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford
2013-2018 Ph.D., Area Studies, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
2009-2013 BA, Law, Faculty of Law, the University of Tokyo
Publications
  • Watanabe, Shun. “Robustness of Clientelism in the Authoritarian Regime in Contemporary Jordan: Analysis on the Election Reforms in the 2010s” Annals of the Japan Association for Comparative Politics, No. 24, pp.151-174, October 2022 (in Japanese).
  • Watanabe, Shun. “Challenges and Outlook of Jordan’s ‘Economic Modernization Vision’” Chuto Dokobunseki (Middle Eastern Affairs), Vol.21, No.5, pp.1-12, September 2022 (in Japanese).
  • Watanabe, Shun. “Japan’s Foreign Policy toward Gulf Countries: Challenges for the Kishida Government” TRENDS Research & Advisory, Jul 4, 2022.
  • Watanabe, Shun. Ruling Networks and Resource Distributions in the Contemporary Arab Monarchies: Struggle of an Oil Poor Monarchy, Jordan. Kyoto: Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2022 (in Japanese).
  • Watanabe. Shun. “Recent Development of the Normalization Efforts between Arab States and Syria: Perspectives from Jordanian and Syrian Relations” Chuto Dokobunseki (Middle Eastern Affairs), November 2021 (in Japanese).
  • Watanabe, Shun. “Challenges for National Dialogue in the Post-Arab Spring Era: The Case of Bahrain” Journal of the Asia-Japan Research Institute of Ritsumeikan University, No.1, July 2019, pp.56-72.
  • Watanabe, Shun. “Consensus-Building in Authoritarian Jordan in the midst of the ‘Democratic’ Reform: Analysis on the Legislative Process of the Amendment of the Civil Retirement Law,” Annals of Japan Association for Middle East Studies, Vol.33, No.1, July 2017, pp.71-93 (in Japanese).
Academic Professional Career
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University(2022-present)
  • Part-time Lecturer, Otsuma Women's University (2022-present)
  • Part-time Lecturer, School of Foreign Studies, Aichi Prefectural University (2021-2023)
  • Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Global and Regional Studies, Doshisha University (2021-2022)
  • Part-time Lecturer, College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University (2020-2021)
  • Research Fellow (DC), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2015-2018)
Other Major Professional Career
  • Japan Association for Middle East Studies
  • Japan Association for Comparative Politics
  • Japan Association of International Relations