For prospective students interested in studying international law in Japan
The admission for GSICS' master's program requires a submission of a research proposal. If you're unsure of research topics in international law and international security, here are some tips on ideas and materials.
More keywords, taken from the past master theses of international and Japanese students: International humanitarian law, law of armed conflict, use of force, self-defence, collective security, the United Nations Security Council, weapons of mass destruction, the NPT, the TPNW, the CWC, arms trade, terrorism, arms control, disarmament, economic sanctions, territorial disputes, the International Court of Justice, countermeasures, obligation to ensure respect
More generally ...
If interested in an interdisciplinary environment, the master's program in GSICS, Kobe University, may be the place for your next 2 years! Any research of global or regional conflicts - the South China Sea, the war in Ukraine, etc.-, international security, disarmament, dispute settlements, etc., with a focus on international law, can potentially be a good thesis topic. For inquiries regarding our master's program, please use the inquiries button or write to mikanishimurahayashi [at] gmail.com
Information on the MEXT scholarship (This is a link to a webpage of Kobe University)
Graduate students' work: We are going strong!
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Receiving a prestigious award for young scholars from Ishibashi Tanzan Foundation, 2023 (a link to a page in Japanese).
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Receiving a prestigious grant from Egusa Foundation for International Cooperation in the Social Sciences, 2022 (EFICSS, a link to a page in Japanese).
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Participating in panels in the ISA Annual Convention, 2022, as panelists.
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Writing a co-authored book review, “State-Sponsored Cyber Operations and International Law: Book review of Henning Lahmann, Unilateral Remedies to Cyber Operations (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and François Delerue, Cyber Operations and International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2020)", International Cybersecurity Law Review 2:1 (2021) 195-200.
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Writing a book review independently, Book Note on Fortin, Katharine (2017) The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, in Journal of Peace Research (April 2019).
Alumni are going strong, too!
"The Wagner Group and the Question of the Legal Attribution of the Acts of Private Actors to a State", AsianSIL Voices – Asian Journal of International Law (24 July 2023).
Students are also active in participating external activities such as:
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Internship with the United Nations University in Tokyo (a Ph.D student, spring 2022)
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Internship with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Kobe (a master student, summer 2017).
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EUSPACE Summer School (a master student, September 2020) and Annual Strategic Space Law Course, McGill University (November 2020).
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Summer Program for Research Fellows in Korea University (a master student, summer 2019, funded by the Campus Asia Program of Kobe University);
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IFLOS Summer Academy in Hamburg (a Ph.D student, summer 2019, partially funded by a travel grant from Kobe University);
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Hague Academy of International Law, winter course (a Ph.D student, January 2019);
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Northeast Asia Training Course for University Lectures on International Humanitarian Law under the auspices of the ICRC (a master student, 2018).
Our institutional strength
Currently (as of May 2025), on-campus resources for students include the access to:
and many more!