Wednesday, September 11th, 2024 at 4:00-5:15 pm ET
State Room, Elliott School of International Affairs and Online
About the event:
The security and economic environment surrounding Okinawa is becoming more uncertain and worrisome. In response, the Okinawa Prefectural Government recently launched its Subnational Diplomacy initiative to promote cooperation and prevent conflict in East Asia. Governor Denny Tamaki of Okinawa will discuss the basic thinking behind this Subnational Diplomacy, some of the concrete steps taken thus far, and the prospects for the future. Then a panel of prominent experts on Japan, international relations, and security policy will comment on Governor Tamaki’s remarks and assess the opportunities and constraints that Okinawa faces to develop and exert its influence in shaping the regional environment.
About the Speakers
Governor Denny Tamaki was first elected as Governor of Okinawa in October 2018 and was re-elected again in September 2022 to serve another four-year term. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 2009 to 2018 (4 terms). Prior to that, he was a member of the Okinawa City Assembly from 2002 to 2005. He graduated from Sophia School of Social Welfare. He was born in Okinawa in 1959.
Sheila A. Smith is a John E. Merow senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Japanese politics and foreign policy, she is the author of Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China (released in Japanese as 日中 親愛なる宿敵: 変容する日本政治と対中政策), and Japan’s New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. She is also the author of the CFR interactive guide Constitutional Change in Japan. Smith is a regular contributor to the CFR blog Asia Unbound and a frequent contributor to major media outlets in the United States and Asia.
Dr. Jennifer Kavanagh is a senior fellow & director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. Kavanagh’s research examines U.S. military strategy, force structure and defense budgeting, the defense industrial base, and U.S. military interventions. Her most recent projects have focused on U.S. defense policy in Asia and the Middle East. Previously, Kavanagh was a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She also worked as a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where, among other roles, she served as director of RAND’s Army Strategy program. Her work has been published in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Washington Quarterly, Lawfare, Los Angeles Times, and War on the Rocks, among other outlets. Kavanagh received an AB in Government from Harvard University and a PhD in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Michigan. She is also an adjunct professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University.
Professor Mochizuki holds the Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Dr. Mochizuki was director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies from 2001 to 2005. He co-directs the “Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific” research and policy project of the Sigur Center. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He was also Co-Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy at RAND and has taught at the University of Southern California and Yale University.
