Associate Professor, at the Institute for International Stragety of Tokyo International University

Former Project Assistant Professor/Project Research Associate (Aug. 2021-Aug. 2024)

His areas of specializations are Asian Politics and International Relations, Strategy and Defense, Transport Security

Working Group 4 on the Emerging Issues in Security Studies
Working Group 5 on Indo-Pacific Transport Security (Chair)

Sub-Working Group 1 on Satellite Imagery Analysis Project

Sub-Working Group 2 on Tabletop Exercises (Chair)

Ryo HINATA-YAMAGUCHI is a Project Assistant Professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo; Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Indo-Pacific Security Initiative; and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Pacific Forum. Ryo has presented, published, and consulted on a variety of topics relating to defense and security, and transport governance in the Indo-Pacific. Ryo previously served as a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (reserve) and also held positions at the Pusan National University, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, FM Bird Entertainment Agency, International Crisis Group Seoul Office, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Embassy of Japan in Australia, and the Japan Foundation Sydney Language Centre. Ryo received his PhD from the University of New South Wales, MA in Strategic and Defense Studies and BA in Security Analysis from the Australian National University and was also a Korea Foundation Language Training Fellow.

Twitter: @tigerrhy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tigerrhy/
Blog (Japanese): https://note.com/tigerrhy/

Senior Program Coordinator

Associate Member of ROLES
Associated Researcher of RCAST, University of Tokyo

Working Group 2 on Middle Eastern and Islamic Alternatives

Working Group 5 on Indo-Pacific Transport Security (Assistant Coordinator)

Sub-Working Group 2 on Tabletop Exercises (Assistant Coordinator)

Twitter: @toyodadesuyo

Collin Koh is Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies which is a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, based in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has research interests on naval affairs in the Indo-Pacific, focusing on Southeast Asia. Collin has published several op-eds, policy- and academic journal articles as well as chapters for edited volumes covering his research areas. He has also taught at Singapore Armed Forces professional military education and training courses. Besides research and teaching, Collin also contributes his perspectives to various local and international media outlets and participates in activities with geopolitical risks consultancies.

Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator, Homeland Security Programme, Rabdan Academy

Shang-Su Wu is an assistant professor and research coordinator at the Homeland Security Program, the Rabdan Academy, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He was a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Wu has a PhD from the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is the author of The Defence Capabilities of Small States: Singapore and Taiwan’s Responses to Strategic Desperation (London: Palgrave, 2016). Wu’s articles, commentaries and op-eds have been published in Asian Survey, Contemporary Southeast Asia, the Pacific Review, Defence Studies, Naval War College Review, and Asia Policy, among others.

Research interests: cross-strait relations, military security in Southeast Asia, railways of international relations

Dr. Jeffrey Ordaniel is a non-resident Senior Adjunct Fellow and Director for Maritime Security at the Pacific Forum. Concurrently, he is also an Associate Professor of International Security Studies at Tokyo International University (TIU) in Japan. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and specializes in the study of offshore territorial and maritime entitlement disputes in Asia. His teaching and research revolve around maritime security and ocean governance, ASEAN regionalism, and broadly, U.S. alliances and engagements in the Indo-Pacific. 

From 2016 to 2019, he was based in Honolulu and was the holder of the endowed Admiral Joe Vasey Fellowship at the Pacific Forum. Since 2019, Dr. Ordaniel has been convening several maritime security-related working groups and track 2 dialogues aiming to generate sound, pragmatic, and actionable policy prescriptions for the region. His current research on maritime security in Asia is funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), 2020-2024.

Research interests: Maritime Security, US-Philippine Alliance, Southeast Asian International Relations

Visiting Senior Research Fellow
Assistant Dean of E-Track Programs and Professor, Institute for International Strategy, Tokyo International University

Christopher Lamont is Assistant Dean of E-Track Programs and Professor of International Relations. Previously, he held a tenured position at the University of Groningen, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ulster. He was also previously a Fulbright scholar at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. He holds a PhD from the University of Glasgow and has published widely on human rights and transitional justice. His recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Democracy, the International Journal of Human Rights, Global Policy, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, and Human Rights Review. He also co-edited, New Crifical Spaces in Transitional Justice (with Arnaud Kurze, Indiana University Press, 2019) and is the author of two research methods textbooks, Research Methods in International Relations (Sage 2015, second edition 2021), and Research Methods in Politics and International Relations (with Mieczyslaw Boduszyński, Sage 2020). In addition to his scholarly work, his writings have also appeared in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage.

Aiko Shimizu is the Japan Digital Inclusion Lead at Microsoft, where she focuses on AI, cybersecurity, digital skilling, and sustainability, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Pacific Forum. 

Prior to her current role, Aiko has worked in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors across the United States, Japan, and Germany, including at Twitter, BMW and Daimler urban mobility joint venture SHARE NOW (formerly car2go), Bloomberg, the United Nations, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. She has also been selected as a U.S.-Japan Council Emerging Leader, an Atlantic Council Millennium Leadership Fellow, a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader, a Salzburg Global Fellow, and an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader. Aiko received her graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She received her Bachelor’s degree with Honors in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Chicago.

Research interests: Artificial Intelligence (AI), technology, cybersecurity, sustainability, mobility, energy 

PhD student, GRIPS Global Governance Program, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

Ariel Stenek is a PhD student in the GRIPS Global Governance Program (Security and International Studies concentration) at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo. Previously she was director of the Young Leaders Program at Pacific Forum, an initiative that supports a global network of over 1,500 young professionals working in foreign policy and security studies, and was co-lead investigator of Pacific Forum's Women, Peace and Security program. Past positions include interning at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and working on UNESCO's Silk Roads Programme. She holds an M.A. in International Relations from Queen Mary, University of London (Paris campus) and a B.A. in Global Politics and Societies with a minor in European Studies from the University of San Francisco. Her research interests include maritime security, U.S.-Japan relations, and Indo-Pacific security architecture.

John F. Bradford is the inaugural Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Indonesia.  He is also an adjunct senior fellow in the Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.  His research focuses on Asian security with special attention given to maritime issues and cooperative affairs. His written work can be found in journals such as Contemporary Southeast Asia, Asia Policy, Asian Security, Asian Survey, Naval War College Review, and Naval Institute Proceedings as well as in edited volumes, online publications and monographs published by leading international think tanks.

Prior to becoming a full-time researcher, he spent more than twenty-three years as a U.S. Navy officer. As a Surface Warfare Officer, he served as Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, Combat Systems Officer, Chief Engineer, Navigator, and First Lieutenant in ships forward-deployed to Japan. His staff assignments included service as Deputy Director for the U.S. Seventh Fleet Maritime Headquarters, as Regional Cooperation Coordinator for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, as Country Director for Japan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Asia-Pacific Politico-military Branch Chief on the Navy Staff. As an Olmsted Scholar, CDR Bradford studied in the Department of Political Science at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia and completed an MSc (Strategic Studies) from RSIS. He is also a graduate of Japan’s National Institute of Defense Studies and is proud of the training he received as a midshipman aboard the Royal Malaysian Navy ship KD Rahmat. A list of his publications can be viewed here.

Research interests: Asian security, maritime issues, security cooperation

Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Zack Cooper is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies US strategy in Asia, including alliance dynamics and US-China competition. He also teaches at Princeton University and is currently writing a book that explains how militaries change during power shifts.

Before joining AEI, Dr. Cooper was the senior fellow for Asian security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He previously worked as codirector of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He also served as assistant to the deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism at the National Security Council and as a special assistant to the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy at the Department of Defense.

Dr. Cooper has been published in academic journals, including International Security and Security Studies, and in the popular press, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among other outlets. He has also authored a variety of studies on Asia, on topics including US military strategy and posture in Asia, Chinese coercion, and US defense cooperation with regional allies and partners. He is the coeditor of two books,
Postwar Japan: Growth, Security, and Uncertainty Since 1945 (CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and Strategic Japan: New Approaches to Foreign Policy and the U.S.-Japan Alliance (CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Dr. Cooper graduated from Princeton University with a PhD and an MA in security studies and an MPA in international relations. He received a BA in public policy from Stanford University.

Research interests: Asia, alliances, defense strategy, military technology, U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-China competition

Dr. Bich Tran is a postdoctoral fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a fellow at the 2024 International Strategy Forum. Previously, she was a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS-Asia), and East West Center in Washington among others. Dr. Tran obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Her research interests include Vietnam’s grand strategy, Southeast Asian states’ relations with major powers, and issues at the intersection between geopolitics and technology. Dr. Tran is the author of “Vietnam's Strategic Adjustments and US Policy” (Survival 64, no. 6, 77–90). A full list of her publications can be found on Google Scholar.

Research interests: Vietnam’s grand strategy, Vietnam-China relations, Vietnam-US relations, ASEAN, maritime security 

Jonathan is Director of the Foreign Affairs, National
Security, and Defence program at the Ottawa-based Macdonald Laurier Institute. He is also concurrently a senior fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and senior fellow on East Asia for the Tokyo-based Asian Forum Japan. Miller also is the Director and co-founder of the Council on International Policy. He also holds appointments as Canada’s ASEAN Regional Forum Expert and Eminent Person (EEP) and as a Responsible Leader for the BMW Foundation. Previously, he was an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, based in Tokyo. Other former appointments and roles include terms as a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, and Senior Fellow on East Asia for the New York-based EastWest Institute.

Miller also held a fellowship on Japan with the Pacific Forum CSIS from 2013-16, and has held a number of other visiting fellowships on Asian security matters, including at JIIA and the National Institute of Defense Studies (Ministry of Defense - Japan). In addition, Miller previously spent nearly a decade working on economic and security issues related to Asia with the Canadian federal government and worked both with the foreign ministry and the security community. He regularly attends track 1.5 and track 2 dialogues in the region and lectures to universities, think-tanks, corporations and others across the Asia-Pacific region on security and defense issues. He regularly consults, provides advice and presents to the private sector, multilateral organizations and governments on regional geopolitics.

Jonathan is a regular contributor to several journals, magazines and newspapers on Asia-Pacific security issues including The Economist Intelligence Unit, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy and Nikkei Asian Review. He has also published widely in other outlets including Forbes, Newsweek Japan, the Globe and Mail, the World Affairs Journal, the Japan Times, the Mainichi Shimbun, the ASAN Forum, Jane’s Intelligence Review and Global Asia. Miller has been interviewed and quoted on regional security issues across a wide range of media including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Le Monde, Nikkei, the Japan Times, Asahi Shimbun, the Voice of America, the Globe and Mail, CBC, CTV and ABC news.

Research interests: Indo-Pacific security; strategic competition; 5EYES and 5EYES plus engagement in region; intelligence cooperation; US-Japan-ROK; ASEAN; emerging technologies; economic security; supply chain resilience

Atlantic Council Assistant Director, Indo-Pacific Security Initiative 

Emma Verges is a Program Assistant with the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) within the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. With a background in Chinese history, culture, and politics, she produces critical analyses and forward-thinking strategies in support of the Initiative’s work on the most pressing issues in the Indo-Pacific region. Building on her knowledge of international order through the lens of international human rights and immigration, Emma has expanded her scope of work to include US-Japan-ROK Trilateral Cooperation, Integrated Deterrence of Adversary Limited Nuclear Use in East Asia, and Trans-Atlantic-Pacific coordination to defend the rules-based international system.

 

Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, Emma received her master’s degree in global affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her time in China lends a unique perspective to her work. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Russian Studies from Macalester College. 

Research interests: China, Russia, human rights, immigration, soft power issues

Lauren Gilbert is an associate director with the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. In
this role, she oversees research and programming focused on engaging with US, allied, and partner governments and other key stakeholders to shape strategies and policies to
mitigate the most important rising security challenges facing the region. In particular, her work focuses on US-ROK-Japan trilateral cooperation, Korea-Japan relations,
integrated deterrence, and trans-Atlantic-Pacific coordination with the aim of defending the rules-based international system.

Originally from Texas, Gilbert holds an MIS in International Cooperation from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies. Her thesis focused on an
analysis of US-ROK-Japan trilateral security cooperation within the lenses of the balance of threat theory and the concept of national strategic identities. She also attained her BA with high honors in International Relations and Global Studies, with a concentration in International Security and a minor in Asian Studies, from the University
of Texas at Austin. She spent a year abroad studying at Korea University’s Division of International Studies.

Research interests: US-ROK-Japan trilateral cooperation, Korea-Japan relations, integrated deterrence, and trans-Atlantic-Pacific coordination

Dr. Maria Tanyag is Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. She specializes in critical and feminist approaches to global peace and security, focusing on the Asia Pacific region, and Southeast Asia in particular. She was selected as one of the inaugural International Studies Association (ISA) Emerging Global South Scholars in 2019, as resident Women, Peace, and Security Fellow at Pacific Forum (Hawaii) in 2021, and as a British Academy Visiting Fellow (2023). She is author of the forthcoming book The Global Politics of Sexual and Reproductive Health with Oxford University Press. Her latest publications are available via

 ResearchGate.

Research interests: Global politics of sexual and reproductive health; global political economy and social reproduction in crisis settings; feminist critiques of postconflict and postdisaster crisis response; feminist methodologies in IR.

Dr. Kristi Govella is Director of the Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs and an Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She specializes in the intersection of economics and security in international relations, with a particular focus on the Indo-Pacific region and Japan. Dr. Govella’s research has examined topics such as economic statecraft, trade, investment, multinational firms, alliances, regional institutional architecture, and the governance of the global commons. In addition to her publications in journals and edited books, she is the co-editor of two books: Linking Trade and Security: Evolving Institutions and Strategies in Asia, Europe, and the United States (2013) and Responding to a Resurgent Russia: Russian Policy and Responses from the European Union and the United States (2012). She serves as an Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center and Pacific Forum and as Editor of the journal Asia Policy. 

Dr. Govella was previously Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of the Asia Program at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, and an Associate Professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. She has also been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo and Waseda University. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Research interests: economic statecraft, economic security, economic coercion, trade, investment, firms, alliances, regional institutional architecture, maritime security, cyberspace, outer space, non-traditional security

Naoko Aoki is an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. She has worked on a variety of security issues in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japanese foreign and security policies, American alliances in Asia, the North Korean nuclear problem, nuclear dynamics in the region as well as policies regarding emerging technologies. 

Prior to joining RAND, Aoki was a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Her professional experience includes a nuclear security fellowship at the House of Representatives. She was also a 2018–2019 Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow and an adjunct political scientist at RAND. Additionally, she was an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), American University, University of Maryland, and University of Southern California’s Washington DC program.

She was formerly a journalist with Japan’s Kyodo News, reporting on the Japanese government from Tokyo before serving as a Beijing correspondent. She has visited North Korea 18 times on reporting trips. She holds a Ph.D. in policy studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, an M.A. in international relations and international economics from the Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and a B.A. in English from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. 

Research interests: Indo-Pacific, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, East Asia Nuclear security, nuclear deterrence, arms control, U.S. alliances, security cooperation, emerging technology policy, diplomacy, politics and government

S. Paul Choi (최석훈) is Principal at StratWays Group, a Seoul-based geopolitical risk advisory. He specializes in political-military affairs, international security, strategy design, and deterrence.

 

Choi provides counsel to government agencies, think-tanks, investment banks, and businesses. He engages in track 1.5 dialogues and speaks at academic and policy institutions around the world. His commentary appears in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Financial Times, NPR, and JoongAng Ilbo.

 

Previously, Choi worked as a Strategist and International Relations Specialist at the United Nations Command / Republic of Korea (ROK) – U.S. Combined Forces Command in the Commander's Strategic Initiatives Group and in the Directorate for Strategy, Policy, and Plans (2013-18). In this capacity, he assisted in the establishment of the ROK-U.S. Deterrence Strategy Committee, the ROK-U.S. Tailored Deterrence Strategy, and various bilateral operational plans.

He has also been a Stanton Nuclear Policy Fellow at RAND (2022-23), Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations (2011-13), Visiting Scholar at Fudan University (2011), and Faculty Lecturer at the Korea Military Academy (2007-10). 

Choi’s published analyses include “As World Order Shifts, So Does South Korean Security Policy” (Arms Control Today, Vol. 53:6, July/August 2023); “Managing Competition: Arms Limitations and Beyond” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May 05, 2022); “The Limits of Operational Integration” (Alliances, Nuclear Weapons and Escalation: Managing Deterrence in the 21st Century, Australia National University Press, December, 2021); “Deterring North Korea: The Need for Collective Resolve and Alliance Transformation” (38 North, Stimson Center, July 2020).

Research interests: security, defense, strategy, alliances

Arius Derr is a PhD candidate at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at The Australian National University. His research focuses on the North Korea nuclear issue. In particular, he explores US relations with nuclear powers over time and how it has ‘learned to live’ with new proliferators. His research is also concerned with deterrence in East Asia and how and why it impacts the objectives of the US and its allies in the region. 

He is Editor at Korea Risk Group and its primary publications NK News and NK Pro, as well as Korea Desk Editor at the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research (EABER)’s East Asia Forum.

Arius’ main interests include US foreign policy in East Asia, the Korean Peninsula, great power competition and international security. His work has been published in the Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, East Asia Forum, the Centre for International Governance Innovation and other outlets.

He has also worked as Editor at KBS, South Korea’s public broadcaster, Research Associate in the Strategy Division of United States Forces Korea, and as Consultant for the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Research interests: Nuclear weapons, deterrence, international security, great power competition, US foreign policy, alliance management, East Asia, North Korea, South Korea, Australia

Jasmin Alsaied is a non-resident fellow with the Middle East Institute as part of the defense and security portfolio. She has published with CSIS, The Diplomat, Asia Times, Charged Affairs, and more.

Research interests: nuclear challenges in the Indo-Pacific; emerging tech integration; alliance strategy and cohesion 

Yoshihiro Inaba is a doctoral student at Senshu University Graduate School, studying Japanese defense legislation and international law related to the use of force (jus ad bellum). He is also a freelance military writer, covering the JSDF, US Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and other national militaries, as well as defense-related companies in Japan and abroad. He has contributed articles to Japanese military magazines and is the first Japanese contributor to Naval News, a France-based web media specializing in naval affairs.

Research interests: international law (jus ad bellum), Japanese security legislation, naval topics

Eunjung Lim is an Associate Professor at Division of International Studies, Kongju National University (KNU). She served as Vice President for International Affairs, Dean of Institute of Korean Education and Culture, and Dean of Institute of International Language Education at the same university.

Her areas of specialization include international cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, comparative and global governance, and energy, nuclear, and climate change policies of East Asian countries. Since 2018, she has served as a board member of Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC), and currently serves as a member of Policy Advisory Committee for Ministry of Unification. She is also the chair of Japan Studies Committee of The Korean Association of International Studies.

Before joining the KNU faculty, Dr. Lim served as an Assistant Professor at College of International Studies, Ritsumeikan University, in Kyoto, Japan. She also taught at several universities in the United States and Korea, including Johns Hopkins University, Yonsei University, and Korea University. She has been a researcher and a visiting fellow at academic institutes including the Center for Contemporary Korean Studies at Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at the University of Tokyo, the Institute of Japanese Studies at Seoul National University, the Institute of Japan Studies at Kookmin University, and the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan.

She earned a B.A. from the University of Tokyo, an M.I.A. from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Research interests: international cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, comparative and global governance, energy security, resource security, nuclear policies, fuel cycle policies, climate change policies

Tonny Dian Effendi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, University of Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia.

He was a visiting research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Japan, the Institute of International Relations (IIR)-National Cheng Chi University, Taiwan, as well as a visiting scholar at the Department of International Relations and Public Administration,
Universidade do Minho, Portugal. He experienced in conducting research under the Sumitomo Foundation’s Japan-related research program, the Southeast Asian Studies Regional Exchange (SEASREP) Program’s research
program, the Australian National University (ANU) Indonesia Project, the European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS) research-publication program, and the
international collaborative research under the Ministry of Higher Education, Republic of Indonesia. He obtained his Bachelor of Social Science in International Relations from Universitas Jember in Indonesia, while his master’s degree was obtained from Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang (Master of Science in Sociology) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (Master of Social Science- by research in International Relations). Currently, he is a PhD candidate from the Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan.

Research interests: International Relations; diplomacy; constructivism; East Asia regional studies; China; Indonesia; diaspora

Dr. DongJoon Park is a Research Fellow at the Jeju Peace Institute (JPI). He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the department of Government at Georgetown University in 2020, and his research focuses on the role of reputations in international relations, alliance politics, and, more broadly, the impact of perceptions on crisis decision-making. His previous roles/positions include, POSCO Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center (2023), Research Professor at the Peace and Democracy Institute (PDI) at Korea University (2023), Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Security and Conflict Studies (ISCS) at George Washington University (2020-2021), and James A. Kelly Korea Research Fellow in residence at Pacific Forum (2011-2012).

Katherine Yusko is a project assistant at the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, where she supports research and analysis of US relations in East Asia, transatlantic-Pacific alliance building, and nuclear/conflict deterrence strategies. Her most recent research focused on identifying areas for US-Papua New Guinea cooperation on climate security challenges.

 

Yusko earned her BA in Culture and Conflict from New York University with a minor in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. She holds a master’s degree in International Affairs, with a concentration in International Security Policy and a specialization in International Conflict Resolution, from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Dr. Sungmin Cho is a professor of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS), an academic institute of the US Department of Defense. His area of expertise covers US-China competition, Chinese politics and the geopolitics of Northeast Asia. Dr. Cho has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, including World Politics, Journal of Contemporary China, The China Journal, Asian Security, Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, and Korea Observer. His policy analysis also appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Quarterly, and War on the Rocks. Dr.Cho contributed commentaries at the invitations of CSIS, Brookings and other think tanks. Prior to the academic career, Dr. Cho served in the Korean Army as an intelligence officer for three years, including seven-month deployment to Iraq. He earned B.A. in Political Science from Korea University, M.A. in International Relations from Peking University, and Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University.