Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, The University of Tokyo

Dr. Takahara is professor of Contemporary Chinese Politics at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics at The University of Tokyo (UTokyo). He also serves as Senior Research Advisor of the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. He was dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy of UTokyo from 2018 to 2020. He received his DPhil in 1988 from Sussex University, and later spent several years as visiting scholar at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, Harvard University, Peking University, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, and the Australian National University.

Professor of War and Strategy in East Asia, and Co-Director Centre for Grand Strategy, King’s College London

Alessio Patalano is Professor of War & Strategy in East Asia at the Department of War Studies (DWS), King’s College London (KCL). At KCL, Prof Patalano is the Co-Director of the Centre for Grand Strategy (CGS), where he leads also the newly established Indo-Pacific Programme. In 2022, Prof Patalano became the first specialist advisor on the Indo-Pacific to the Foreign Affairs Committee in the UK Parliament. In 2023, he became also the first academic to be awarded a Commendation of the Ambassador of Japan to the UK for outstanding contribution to the advancement of UK-Japan ties in defence and security.

Senior Policy Adviser in the Policy Planning Unit in the Office of the Secretary General, North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Ruben-Erik Diaz-Plaja is a Senior Policy Adviser in the Policy Planning Unit in the Office of the Secretary General, NATO HQ in Brussels, where he contributes to developing, negotiating and implementing strategic policy priorities for the Secretary General. In this role, he has contributed inter alia to the development of the the 2022 Strategic Concept and the NATO 2030 agenda for the future of NATO. Ruben has more than 15 years’ experience working at the intersection of defence, security and democratic governance in the wider Euro-Atlantic region, including previous work with the OSCE in Warsaw, Poland, and Kosovo (2007-2012). A Spanish/Dutch national, Ruben holds degrees in Politics (Edinburgh University, ‘04) and International Relations and Economics (Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, ‘06).

Associate Professor, Faculty of International Politics and Economics, Nishogakusha University (Tokyo)

His areas of expertise are the History of NATO, European Security, Alliance politics, and Nuclear History. He is currently a member of the research projects at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and RCAST Open Laboratory for Emergence Strategies (ROLES) of the University of Tokyo. He is also a visiting scholar at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). He has contributed articles and book chapters (in Japanese) in, among others: Yuichi Hosoya eds, War in Ukraine and Europe (2023); Yoko Iwama eds, The reality of Nuclear Sharing: NATO’s experience and its implication for Japan (2023); Satoshi Morimoto and Sugio Takahashi eds, Security after the post-INF treaty: Missiles, Arms race and the defense of Japan (2020)

Japan Chair, Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS), Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Eva Pejsova is Japan Chair at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG-VUB) and Associate Fellow at the French “Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique” (FRS). Until 2019, Dr Pejsova was in charge of the Asia portfolio at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), the EU’s official agency for foreign and security policy research and analysis. She holds a PhD in Strategic Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore and has previously worked with the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French Prime Minister’s Office, the OECD and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). Dr Pejsova regularly lectures at SciencesPo (Paris School of International Affairs) in Paris, the Geneva Centre for Security Studies (GCSP), and briefs the Members of the European Parliament. Her research focuses on EU – Asia relations, maritime security, Japan’s foreign and security policy, and the overall strategic dynamic within the Indo-Pacific region.

Head of the China Studies Centre at Riga Stradins University, Head of the Asia Programme at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs.

​Dr Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova is Head of the China Studies Centre and Director of the Social Sciences PhD Programme at Riga Stradins University, Head of the Asia Programme at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, a member of the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC), a CHOICE fellow, King's College London and MERICS affiliate. She has held fellowships at Fudan and Stanford Universities, and currently is a visiting academic at the University of Oxford China Centre. She is the author of Perfect Imbalance: China and Russia (World Scientific, 2022) and the editor of Discourse, Rhetoric and Shifting Political Behaviour in China (Routledge, 2023)

Italian MP, President of the Committee for Italians living Abroad and member of the Indo-Pacific Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Italian Parliament

Born on 11 February 1976 in Florence where he graduated in industrial engineering. He subsequently specialized in European and International Industrial Law at the Robert Schuman University of Strasbourg and in patent litigation at the Polytechnic of Milan. He has obtained titles of European Patent Attorney, European Patent Litigator, Italian Patent Consultant and Industrial Design Consultant.

Hon Simone Billi has more than 20 years of business experience, having worked in a law firm, hence as a manager of a Florence-based business conglomerate and, between 2012 and 2018, of a Zurich-based business conglomerate. Elected in the Italian Parliament since 2018 in the constituency of Italians living in Europe.

Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien DIJ

​Principal Researcher, German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo

Harald Kümmerle is principal researcher at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo. His educational background includes mathematics, computer science, Japanese Studies, and Japanese as a Foreign Language. His doctoral thesis concerned the history of mathematics in modern Japan. At the DIJ, his research focuses on the digital transformation of Japan in its material and discursive dimensions. His publications include a 2022 article on “Japanese Data Strategies, Global Surveillance Capitalism, and the ‘LINE Problem’”, and a co-authored article on ”Japan’s ‘Consensual’ Variety of Digital Capitalism and Its Global Relevance”, forthcoming in the Asia Pacific Business Review.

Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo.

He holds a PhD from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tokyo. His key research areas are the role the prime minister in Japanese politics, changes in Japanese security policy including economic security and democratization in Pre-war Japan.

His recent publications include: “Kyokoku Chugoku” to Taijisuru Indo-Taiheiyo Shokoku [Indo-Pacific Nations facing China aspiring to be a “Great Country”](edited) (Tokyo: Chikura Shobo, 2022), “Evolution of Japanese security policy and the House of Councilors,” Japanese Journal of Political Science, 22:2, (June 2021), 96-115, Korona Kiki no Seiji [Politics of Covid 19 Crisis](Tokyo: Chuo Koron Shinsha, 2020), Failed Democratization in Prewar Japan (Stanford University Press 2014).

University of Oxford

Hugh Whittaker is an economic sociologist whose research encompasses Japanese and comparative management, innovation, corporate governance and political economy.  He has recently published books Compressed Development: Time and Timing in Economic and Social Development (co-authored, 2020) and Building a New Economy: Japan’s Digital and Green Transformation (2024).

Director of Contemporary South Asian Studies, Associate Professor in the International Relations of South Asia

Kate Sullivan de Estrada is Associate Professor in the International Relations of South Asia at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Antony’s College. Her research focuses on India's social role and identity as a rising power and India's strategy in the Indo-Pacific. She has served as Principal Research Analyst for India at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and delivered expert testimony on the UK-India relationship to two UK parliamentary inquiries. A parallel strand of her research and policy engagement centres on Indian Ocean security, where she worked with the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) from 2018 to 2019 as an Oxford Policy Exchange Network Fellow. From January 2024, she will be pursuing a further project with the IOC entitled Balancing ‘Sovereignty Trade-offs’ in Small-State Maritime Security Co-operation, funded by Research England’s Policy Support Fund.

University of Cambridge & Emmanuel College

Ayşe Zarakol is Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow in Politics at Emmanuel College. She is the author of After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West and the editor of Hierarchies in World Politics. Her most recent book Before the West: the Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders has won five international book awards. Zarakol is the 2023 recipient of the Koç Medal of Science, given annually to one researcher from Turkey for outstanding contributions to their discipline. 

Chair of International Politics, The University of Tokyo

Ken Endo is Chair & Professor of International Politics, Faculty of Law, The University of Tokyo and Adjunct Fellow, Japan Institute for International Affairs, Tokyo, Japan. After obtaining an MA (cum laude) in European Studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, he obtained a D.Phil in Politics at St Antony's College, Oxford. With his The End of Integration – The realities and implications of the European Union (Iwanami, 2013, in Japanese), he was awarded the Yomiuri-Chuo Koron Yoshino Sakuzo prize in 2014. He also served as one of the two commissioning editors of Iwanami’s 8 vols (c100 articles), on Japanese security (2014-15).

Indonesian Ambassador to the UK

Dr. Desra Percaya is the current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Kingdom, accredited to Ireland and the International Maritime Organization. 

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​Dr. Desra Percaya holds a Doctorate Degree from Durham University (England), a Master’s Degree from Birmingham University (England) and a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Airlangga (Indonesia). 

Associate Professor, Kyushu University;  Managing Director ERIA and Dean of ERIA School of Government 

Nobuhiro Aizawa is Associate Professor of Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University Dean/Managing Director ERIA School of Government. His research focus on the International relations between the Northeast and Southeast Asia. His particular interests also lies in Southeast Asian politics, especially on Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.  He currently work on a project on the International politics of digital infrastructure and The emerging Southeast Asian elite network on the rise of Asian digital economy. He has been a Wilson Center Japan Scholar, a Visiting Scholar at Thammasat University, Chulalongkorn University, Cornell University and LIPI (Currently BRIN) of Indonesia. He is a former Research Associate at the Institute of Development Economies-JETRO and at the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies.

Assistant Professor, Institute of Chinese Studies, Heidelberg University

​Dr. Marina Rudyak is an Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies at Heidelberg University. Her research focuses on China’s relations with the Global South, particularly through foreign aid and international development cooperation. Her other research focus is how Chinese Communist Party’s political ideology plays out in China’s quest for international discourse power, with a specific emphasis on regional fora and international organisations. She is a co-founder of the "Decoding China Dictionary” (www.decodingchina.eu), a project aimed at providing translations and explanations of key Chinese political terms and slogans, and a member of the new Horizon Europe project “De-Conspirator” which investigates information-suppression attempts in the EU and its partner countries.

Prof. em. Reinhard Drifte, Newcastle University

His subject area is Japanese foreign policy, focusing on various aspects of Japan-China relations, including disputes in the East China Sea, Japan`s policy towards the South China Sea and EU-East Asia relations. Book publications include `Japan`s security relations with China since 1989`, and `Japan's quest for a permanent Security Council seat. A matter of pride or justice?

Ambassador of Japan to the UK

​Ambassador Hayashi joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1982. His career includes positions such as Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister, Minister at the Embassy of Japan in the US, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in India, Director-General for European Affairs Bureau, Ambassador of Japan to Belgium and Chief of Mission to NATO. He has also served as Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary and Deputy Secretary-General of National Security Secretariat. Since December 2020, he has been serving in his current post.   

Professor of International Relations (Emeritus), and Emeritus Fellow, St Antony’s College, Oxford

Rosemary Foot is Professor (Emeritus) at the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations, an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, and a Research Associate at the Oxford China Centre. In 1996, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Her research interests cover security relations in the Asia-Pacific, human rights, Asian regional institutions, China and regional and world order, and China-US relations. Author or editor of some 14 books, her latest book is entitled China, the UN, and Human Protection: Beliefs, Power, Image (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Emeritus Fellow Nissan Institute and St Antony’s College, Oxford

Ian Neary taught at the universities of Huddersfield, Newcastle and Essex before arriving at Oxford University in 2004. He retired in 2019 and is now an emeritus fellow at the Nissan Institute and St Antony’s College. He has published widely about human rights and industrial policy in Japan and produced a textbook on Japanese politics (2002, 2nd edition 2018). Most recently his Dowa Policy and Japanese Politics was published by Routledge in 2022.

Senior Research Fellow in Taiwan Studies, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies

Dr JING Bo-jiun is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Taiwan Studies Programme within the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA). His research and publications primarily focus on Taiwan-Southeast Asia relations, Taiwan’s cybersecurity strategy, and the international relations of the Indo-Pacific region. Dr Jing is the author of the monograph titled Taiwan and Southeast Asia: Opportunities and Constraints of Continued Engagement (University of Maryland School of Law, 2016). He holds a PhD in International Political Economy from King’s College London. Previously, he served as the Head of the Taiwan Studies Project and Research Fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) in Sweden, a Research Associate at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, and an Associate Researcher at the Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan.

Lecturer, University of Oxford & Director of the EU-Asia Project, European University Institute

Giulio Pugliese is a Lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, and Part-Time Professor at the European University Institute (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies).

He specialises in the international politics and, to a lesser extent, economics of the Asia-Pacific. He has presented and published on academic, policy-oriented and commercial themes across countries, including: International Affairs, The Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs, Defence Strategic Communications, GAIKO, Tōa, and for the Italian Senate. He is a co-author of Sino-Japanese Power Politics: Might, Money and Minds (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017, also available in Korean) and was recently awarded the Nakasone Yasuhiro Incentive Award for research excellence.

Professor of International Politics and Japanese Studies, University of Warwick

Chris Hughes is Professor of International Politics and Japanese Studies in the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS), University of Warwick. He was formerly Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education). He has been a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow; Visiting Associate Professor and Asahi Shimbun Visiting Chair of Mass Media and Politics, Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo; and Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at the Department of Government, Harvard University. His latest monograph is Japan as a Global Military Power: New Capabilities, Alliance Integration, Bilateralism-Plus (Cambridge University Press, 2023).