Draft:Pascal Lottaz

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Pascal Lottaz (born 1985) is a Swiss political scientist and academic specializing in neutrality studies, international relations, and diplomatic history. He is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University, where he also holds an appointment through the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research.^[1] He is the founder and director of the Neutrality Studies Institute.^[2]

Lottaz was born in 1985 and grew up in a small town in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland.^[3] His first encounter with Japan came through popular culture — anime, manga, and video games — though he has noted that he did not realise these were Japanese in origin until around the age of 15 or 16.^[3] At 18, he participated in a high school exchange programme in Hashimoto-shi, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan (2004–2005), living with a rural rice-farming family.^[4] The experience proved formative, deepening both his Japanese language skills and his interest in Japan.

He returned to Switzerland to undertake undergraduate studies at the University of Fribourg, where he studied philosophy (2007–2010).^[5] He subsequently returned to Japan for an internship at the Minato City office in Tokyo (2010),^[4] before enrolling at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, where he completed a Master of Public Policy (2011–2012) and a PhD in International Relations (2014–2018).^[5] His doctoral dissertation, titled Neutral States and Wartime Japan: The Diplomacy of Sweden, Spain and Switzerland toward the Empire, examined how neutral countries navigated their relations with Imperial Japan during the Second World War.^[6]

After completing his doctorate, Lottaz joined the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS) at Waseda University in Tokyo as an Assistant Professor (January 2017 – December 2022).^[7] Concurrently, he served as Adjunct Professor for European Politics at Temple University Japan Campus (2017–2022).^[7] He was subsequently an Adjunct Researcher at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (April 2022 – March 2023).^[7]

In March 2023, Lottaz was appointed associate professor at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University, a position he continues to hold.^[5] He is affiliated with the university's Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, a programme supporting outstanding mid-career researchers.^[8] He also served as Secretary of the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association (2019–2023).^[7]

Lottaz's central research focus is neutrality as a political and legal phenomenon in international relations and diplomatic history. He argues that neutrality is a significantly understudied concept in political science — one that mainstream international relations theory, with its emphasis on balancing and bandwagoning, cannot adequately capture.^[8] His work integrates historical case studies, archival documents, literary sources, and philosophy with qualitative and quantitative political science methods, aiming to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding neutrality across periods and geographies.^[9]

Lottaz leads the Neutrality Studies Institute, a research network dedicated to the academic study of neutrality and non-alignment in international relations, international law, and diplomacy.^[2] He contributed the entry "Neutrality Studies" to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies (2022) and "The Politics and Diplomacy of Neutrality" to Oxford Bibliographies in International Relations (2022).^[5] He also co-authored a piece in Foreign Policy magazine in June 2023 arguing for a more nuanced understanding of neutral states in the context of the Russia–Ukraine War.^[10] Professor Lottaz hosts a popular Youtube channel Neutrality Studies with over 1,000 videos posted and with over 345K subscribers.^[11]

A prominent direction of Lottaz's historical research concerns Switzerland's diplomatic relations with Japan during the Second World War. He has examined how neutral states navigated their relationships with belligerent powers in the Asia-Pacific theatre, drawing on archival records from Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, and Japan.^[12] This work includes annotated editions of primary sources, such as the wartime diary of Camille Gorgé, Switzerland's Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan, who was responsible not only for the Swiss legation but also for dozens of Allied diplomats and civilians under Switzerland's "Good Office" mandates.^[12]

Lottaz has also written on Korean reunification and neutrality, Mongolian foreign policy, Taiwan and cross-strait relations, and nuclear nonproliferation.^[5] His broader interest lies in exploring neutral solutions as components of contemporary security architectures, including proposals for a neutral Korean Peninsula and a neutral Taiwan as mechanisms for reducing great-power tensions.^[7]

Select publication where Lottaz is editor or co-editor:

• Notions of Neutralities (Lexington Books, 2019; co-edited with Herbert R. Reginbogin)^[7]
• Permanent Neutrality: A Model for Peace, Security, and Justice (Lexington Books, 2020; co-edited with Herbert R. Reginbogin)^[13]
• Sweden, Japan, and the Long Second World War (Routledge, 2021)^[13]
• Neutral Beyond the Cold: Neutral States and the Post-Cold War International System (Lexington Books, 2022; co-edited with Heinz Gärtner and Herbert R. Reginbogin)^[13]
• Neutral Europe and the Creation of the Nonproliferation Regime 1958–1968 (Routledge, 2023; co-edited with Yoko Iwama)^[14]
• Selected Articles and Book Chapters
• "Neutrality Studies." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies (2022)^[5]
• "The Politics and Diplomacy of Neutrality." Oxford Bibliographies in International Relations (2022)^[5]
• "Dual-neutrality for the Koreas: A two-pronged approach toward reunification" (with Tumurjin Ganbaatar). Defense & Security Analysis, 38(3), 284–295 (2022)^[5]
• "The Future of Neutrality." GCSP Policy Brief (2023)^[5] "In Defense of Neutrals: Why They're More Than Just Fence Sitters" (with Heinz Gärtner). Foreign Policy (June 2023)^[15]
• "Going East: Switzerland's Early Consular Diplomacy toward East and Southeast Asia." Traverse: Zeitschrift für Geschichte (2020)^[7]
• "Violent Conflicts and Neutral Legations: A Case Study of the Spanish and Swiss Legations in Wartime Japan." New Global Studies, 11(2), 85–100^[6]

• Google Scholar profile

• Lens.org: profile

• Scopus: profile

• AfC submissions by date/06 June 2026
• Draft articles about biographies
• Draft articles about Asia
• AfC submissions on living persons
• Draft articles

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