"Security Cooperation Mechanisms" International Study Group

This group examines the possibility of confidence-building and security dialogues in Asia. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act of the CSCE Helsinki Summit in 1975. It is about time to start thinking about similar inclusive security dialogue mechanisms in Asia.

Activity records

2026.04.08 (Wed.)

News

Announcements

Paper Publications Resulting from the International Conference “50 Years of the Helsinki Final Act: European Experience and Asian Future.”

2025.08.26 (Tue.)

News

Announcements

International Conference “50 Years of the Helsinki Final Act: European Experience and Asian Future.”

2025.06.12 (Thu.)

News

Announcements

Members of the "Security Cooperation Mechanisms" International Study Group participated in "The Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security: The Tenth International Conference"

2025.04.25 (Fri.)

News

Announcements

GIF International Seminar on “Securing the Seabed, Shaping the Seas: Undersea Infrastructure and the Geopolitics of Maritime Order in the Indo-Pacific”

2025.04.24 (Thu.)

Event

Seminar

Seminar: Securing the Seabed, Shaping the Seas: Undersea Infrastructure and the Geopolitics of Maritime Order in the Indo-Pacific

2024.11.09 (Sat.)

News

Announcements

Members of the "Security Cooperation Mechanisms" International Study Group visits Ulaanbaatar

Members

IWAMA, Yoko

Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

Yoko Iwama is Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). She is also the director of Security and Strategy Program (SSP) at GRIPS.

Born in Kobe in year 1964, she graduated from Kyoto University in 1986 and earned her PhD in Law at the University. She was a student at the Free University of Berlin between 1989-1991.

Having served as Special Assistant of the Japanese Embassy in Germany (1998–2000), she joined GRIPS in 2000 and was appointed Professor in 2009. She is single with two children. Her specialty is international security and European diplomatic history centering on NATO, Germany, and nuclear strategy including nuclear sharing. She has served on numerous government committees and is a regular contributor to major newspapers.

Her publications include John Baylis and Yoko Iwama (eds.) Joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty: Deterrence, Non-Proliferation and the American Alliance, (Routledge 2018); Pascal Lottaz and Yoko Iwama (eds.) Neutral Europe and the Creation of the Nonproliferation Regime:1958-1968 (Routledge, 2024); Yoko Iwama (ed.) The Realities of Nuclear Sharing: NATO’s Experience and Japan (Shinzansha, 2023 in Japanese). She received the 2022 Inoki

Masamichi Prize of Japan Society for Security Studies for her book, The 1968 Global Nuclear Order and West Germany (Yuhikaku, 2021 in Japanese).

Co-Head

OBA, Mie

Professor, Kanagawa University

NAKAMURA, Masaki

Areas of specialization: Mongolian constitutional history, comparative law, and legal history

MASUO, Chisako

Professor, Kyushu University

Chisako T. MASUO is a Professor of international relations at the Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University and an Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), who focuses on Chinese foreign and maritime policies.

She was given the Nakasone Yasuhiro Award of Excellence in 2021 for her contribution to China studies and policy discussions regarding China’s Coast Guard Law. She worked with late Harvard professor Ezra F. Vogel as his research assistant before obtaining the Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 2008 and served as his coordinate research scholar at Harvard-Yenching Institute in 2014-15.

She had visiting fellowship at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and at China Foreign Affairs University in 2019. She has written papers and conducted extensive research activities not only in Japanese, but also in English and Chinese.

[Recent Publications]

1. Chisako T. Masuo, “Fighting Against Internal and External Threats Simultaneously: China’s Police and Satellite Cooperation with Autocratic Countries”, IAI Papers, Istituto Affari Internazionali (Rome), Jan. 10, 2023,
link.

2. Chisako T. Masuo, “China’s ‘National Spatial Infrastructure’ and Global Governance: Chinese Way of Military–Civil Fusion (MCF) over the Ocean”, Maritime Affairs (Journal of the National Maritime Foundation of India), 17:2 (27 Jan 2022), pp. 27-42.

3. 益尾知佐子 (Chisako T. Masuo), 『中国の行動原理：国内潮流が決める国際関係』(China’s Behavioural Principles: International Relations Determined by the Domestic Currents), 中公新書 (Chuko Publishing), 2019.

KUWAHARA, Naoko

Associate Professor, Iwate Prefectural University

~~Current Faculty Position~~
・ Iwate Prefectural University, Faculty of Policy Studies, Japan [Sep 2021-present]
Tenured Associate Professor of International Development. Teach International Development,Law and Practice, International Development Seminar.

~~Education~~

・ Ph.D., Graduate School of International Development, University of Nagoya, Japan, 2005

・ LL.M., Faculty of Law, University of Malaya, Malaysia, 2007

・ M.A., Graduate School of International Development, University of Nagoya, Japan, 1996

・ Diploma in Communicative Arabic, SOAS, University of London, 2004

~~Recent Publications~~

◯Books
・Masanori Aikyo, Yuzuru SHIMADA & Naoko KUWAHARA (eds.) Rule of Law Projects in Asia, Junpo-do, 2021.

◯Articles and Book Chapters
・ “Constitutional Politics Affecting Religious Minorities under Constitutionalization of Islam after the Iraq War”, The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies, No. 39, 2021, pp. 117-135.

・ “Malaysian Constitution” in Masanori Aikyo et al. (eds.), Collection of Asian Constitutions, new edition, Akashi-Shoten, 2021, pp. 509-626.

・ “Singapore Constitution” in Masanori Aikyo et al. (eds.), Collection of Asian Constitutions, new edition, Akashi-Shoten, 2021, pp.867-972.

・“Legal Assistance Projects toward ‘Poverty’ Reduction: Human Rights Based Approach and Catalyst of Market Economy Approach” in Naoko Kuwahara et al. (eds.) Legal Assistance Project in Plural Legal World, Junposha, 2021, pp. 69-155.

・ “International Development and Islamic Law” in Naoko Kuwahara et al. (eds.) Legal Assistance Project in Plural Legal World, Junposha, 2021, pp.361-388.

・ “Making Islamic Finance as Intellectual Activity of Jurist: ‘Just’ Trade under the God’s Law”, Hogaku-Kyoshitsu, No.495, 2021, pp.4-7.

KOGA, Kei

Kei koga is associate professor of Nanyang Technological University.

LOTTAZ, Pascal

Associate Professor, Kyoto University

Dr. Pascal Lottaz is an Associate Professor at Kyoto University where he investigates neutrality in international relations and directs the research network neutralitystudies.com. He received his MA and PhD from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and previously researched and taught at Waseda University and Temple University (Japan Campus). His recent books include Sweden, Japan, and the Long Second World War (Routledge, 2022), Neutral Beyond the Cold: Neutral States and the Post-Cold War International System (Lexington Books, 2022), and Notions of Neutralities (Lexington Books, 2019). He also wrote articles on “Neutrality Studies” for Oxford Encyclopedia and “The Politics and Diplomacy of Neutrality” for Oxford Bibliography. He can be followed on
youtube.: youtube.com/@neutralitystudies.

ALISHER, Umirdinov

Professor, Nagoya University of Economics

KOBAYASHI, Hiroyuki

Project Researcher of RCAST, University of Tokyo

AKIYAMA, Nobumasa

Professor, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University

Publications

2026.04.16 (Thu.)

Paper

Nobumasa AKIYAMA “Imagining a Future Arms Control and Disarmament Regime in Asia”（ROLES Report No.70）

2026.04.13 (Mon.)

Paper

Pit Heltmann “Divided Germany and Divided Korea after 1949 - A tale of cautious convergence and massive divergence -”（ROLES Report No.69）

2026.04.13 (Mon.)

Paper

Naoko KUWAHARA “ “Rule of Law” and Japanese Approach to Legal Technical Assistance A Comparative Perspective on Strengthening Security in International Development- Cases from Europe, Japan, and Mongolia”（ROLES Report No.68）

2026.04.08 (Wed.)

Paper

Yoko IWAMA “The “German Problem” and the Helsinki Process”（ROLES Report No.67）

2026.04.06 (Mon.)

Paper

Bart Gaens “Looking back to the Helsinki Final Act: What made it possible and what is its contemporary relevance for Asia?”（ROLES Report No.66）

2026.04.04 (Sat.)

Paper

CHANDMANI Sukhbaatar “Mongolia’s strategic choice- the OSCE”（ROLES Report No.65）

2026.04.03 (Fri.)

Paper

Hirofumi KOSAKA “From Confidence-Building Measures to Arms Control and Disarmament in the Helsinki Process: Lessons and Implications for Asia’s Future”（ROLES Report No.64）

2026.04.02 (Thu.)

Paper

Tsukasa HOTTA “Towards a Pan-European Security: The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Helsinki Final Act”（ROLES Report No.63）

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