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Hirotsugu "Hiro" Aida is a journalist and scholar, currently a visiting professor at Kansai University in Osaka. He is set to retire this March. Aida specializes in teaching journalism and American intellectual history. In addition to his academic role, he contributes as a writer for the Kyodo news agency. He holds a research associate position at the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (CISMOR) at Doshisha University in Kyoto. Aida's extensive career includes a tenure as a full professor at the School of Global Studies and Collaboration (GSC) at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo from 2015 to 2020. He has also been actively involved in various editorial capacities, serving as an editorial board member for The American Purpose online magazine in Washington, D.C. 

Aida is an author with several notable works in Japanese, including My Special Japan: Told by World Intellectuals (Sekai-no Chisei ga Kataru "Tokubetsu-na Nippon"). His other works include America in Disarray, Trump Phenomenon and American Conservative Thought. Aida's contributions extend beyond his native language, as he has translated works by prominent authors such as Francis Fukuyama and Russell Kirk into Japanese. His translations include Fukuyama's Political Order and Political Decay (2018), The Origins of Political Order (2013), and America at the Crossroads (2006), as well as Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind (2018). Throughout his career, Aida has also written numerous articles for major Japanese magazines, including Chuokoron, Foresight, Sekai, and Toyo Keizai Weekly, showcasing his expertise and engagement with global issues.

Where do you see the most exciting research/debates happening in your field?

I have been closely monitoring the evolving intellectual landscape in the United States, aiming to nurture a mutually beneficial relationship between the US and Japan. My interest in this field traces back to the 1990s when I engaged with right-leaning intellectuals and their perspectives. The rise of personalities like Trump can be interpreted as a reaction to perceived failures in US politics, economics, and society over several decades. These failures have spurred significant disruptions and transformations within the intellectual community, challenging the traditional principles of US liberalism. 

A group of post-liberal thinkers, exemplified by Patrick Deneen and his influential work Why Liberalism Failed, has emerged. These thinkers advocate for a departure from the individualism and property rights inherent in US-style liberalism, instead proposing a more communitarian society. However, their vision often lacks a concrete blueprint. Simultaneously, socialist ideologies have experienced a resurgence, as seen through Senator Sanders' prominence as a self-proclaimed democratic socialist contender in the Democratic presidential primaries of 2016 and 2020. 

Amidst this shifting landscape, there has been a notable but little-known reevaluation of the legacy of James Burnham (1905-1987), a significant intellectual in US Trotskyism before World War II. While Burnham later became a leading anti-Communist personality during the Cold War, traces of his Trotskyist roots, particularly his anti-bureaucratic stance, persist throughout his intellectual journey. Early 20th-century Italian Machiavellian thinkers, such as Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca, also influenced his later ideological development. Exploring the interaction between Trotskyist principles and Italian political thought provides........

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