Sophia Magazine vol.8 / WINTER 2018

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An NHK documentary on the Vietnam War, directed by Higashi and aired in 1998, made waves both at home and abroad when it broadcast for the first time the historic dia-logue between former leaders of the United States and Viet-nam on how to avoid the conflict.Following this, Higashi directed a long list of documenta-ries on topics ranging from the nuclear threat on the Korean Peninsula to the rebuilding of Iraq. His programs for NHK garnered both domestic and international awards, but in 2004 at the age of 35, he resigned from the broadcaster.“My parents were survivors of the atomic bomb on Hi-roshima, and since childhood I had felt a strong desire for peace. Years of covering those involved in reconciliation and the peace process rekindled that desire, and I thus made the decision to try my hand at a job that would contribute di-rectly to building peace.”Leaving NHK, Higashi went to the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, a country deeply engaged in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (PKO), and earned both a master’s degree and Ph.D. UBC was the perfect place to study peacebuilding, since it is home to the Liu Institute for Global Issues, which runs a research program dedicated to human security then under the directorship of former Ca-nadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, the force behind the establishment of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Conven-tion and the International Criminal Court.“Peacebuilding is defined as operations to create sustain-able peace in a post-conflict region,” explains the director-turned-professor, “through rebuilding of the nation state and prevention of the resumption of violent conflict.” Back in the early 2000s the postwar rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq, which had been invaded by the US in 2001 and 2003 respectively, was failing. The reason for this in the eyes of many academics, Higashi recalls, was that the US lacked legitimacy. “Therefore I wondered, what could be done to make a govern-ment ‘legitimate’ in the eyes of the people? That was the starting point of my research at UBC.” In the firm belief that listening to the voices of those involved in conflict was essential, Higashi enlisted the help of Carolyn McAskie, then-As-sistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office, a fellow UBC alumnus, in order to undertake on-the-ground surveys in Afghanistan and East Timor in 2008. “Those trips changed my life,” he reflects. In Afghanistan, Higashi visited the capital Kabul as well as provinces such as Wardak and Kandahar, interviewing political leaders and military commanders. He also conducted a sur-vey of hundreds of regular citizens and listened to their accounts. “The results,” he says, “led to the conclu-sion that peace negotiations with the Taliban and other anti-government forces were essential.”When the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations announced the survey’s findings in an English-language re-port, it was well received by the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other UN officials. Later, when “Peacebuilding” [Heiwakochiku] (Iwanami Press, 2009) was published in Japan, Higashi’s recommendation that “Japan should play a leading role in reconciliation in Afghanistan” caught the attention of the Japanese government.“My policy recommendation to support the reconcilia-tion and reintegration of Taliban and other anti-government forces was adopted by the Japanese government in its Afghan strategy announced in November 2009,” explains Higashi. “I served as a team leader for reconciliation in the UNAMA, where I was involved in setting up a reconciliation and rein-tegration program and the High Peace Council, among other things.” Despite repeated negotiations with the Taliban, a for-mal peace agreement in Afghanistan has yet to be reached. Under the Trump administration, however, behind-the-scenes negotiations between the US and the Taliban have begun. While many challenges remain, the two parties are exploring the path forward from ceasefire through to a peace agreement and national rebuilding. “The key ingredients in creating a ‘legitimate’ government,” Higashi enumerates, “are (1) a trustworthy third party such as the UN; (2) inclusiveness; (3) improvement of living stan-dards through resource distribution; and (4) the imposition A Peacebuilding Researcher Who Has Changed the Course of International PoliticsInvestigating Issues of Political Inclusion and Exclusion14Research