Remaking counterterrorism: Japan's preparations for unconventional attacks

David Leheny's investigation of Japanese counterterrorism policy explores how "best practices" in the handling of crises are themselves the products of national framing of transnationally shared images. American counterterrorism policy- itself heavily affected by the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack of 1995-has had profound consequences for Japanese debates about preparedness, despite the absence of any evidence that these measures have been or would be effective. Similarly, the Japanese government's recent counterterrorism ODA efforts have aimed at spreading these lessons to Southeast Asia, once again helping to generate global solutions even when the transnational problems are complex, political, and potentially insusceptible to the prescribed countermeasures. In this view, transnational policy solutions may become compelling to local decisionmakers for local reasons, even as they themselves contribute to their further globalization.