Peter D. Zimmerman, professor of science and security at King’s College London and a former chief scientist of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, writes: While Bush looked for nonexistent nuclear weapons in Iraq – as Condoleezza Rice suggested, to ensure that the next warning did not come as a mushroom cloud – the capability to generate plenty of mushroom clouds was being acquired by North Korea.

Gavan McCormack, professor in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University and (2003 to 2005) visiting professor at International Christian University in Tokyo,writes: the Japanese convention of serving the empire loyally and unquestioningly has been sanctified by a half-century of evolution as an affluent imperial dependency. In the 20th century, the benefits were large and the costs acceptable. However, the blueprints for the 21st century call for a new level of subjugation.

G. Pascal Zachary, the author of The Diversity Advantage: Multicultural Identity in the New World Economy, writes: the influence of migrants is not limited to themselves. In short, migrants have a multiplier effect and it is only by understanding the broader social reality of migrants that we can begin to understand their actual influence.

Richard Tanter, Nautilus Institute Associate, writes: given the degree of incoherence and even irrationality of US policy under the Bush administration, the acceleration of the process of Heisei militarization by the Bush Doctrine has diminished rather than increased Japanese security.