US alliance structure in East Asia

This discussion took place at the IISS offices in Washington on May 25 2017.

Masataka Okano has served as Political Minister of the Embassy of Japan since November 2015. He is in charge of managing the US-Japan alliance, and monitoring US foreign policy and US domestic politics. Immediately before this current assignment, he served as the Director for Foreign Policy Coordination at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2012-2015, with responsibilities including the planning and coordinating of Japan’s foreign policy strategies. He regularly escorted Prime Ministers overseas and during his three year tenure, he traveled to 58 countries.

Mira Rapp-Hooper is a Senior Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Security Program at CNAS. She is formerly a Fellow with the CSIS Asia Program and Director of the CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. Her expertise includes Asia security issues, deterrence, nuclear strategy and policy, and alliance politics. She was previously a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

David B. Shear was formerly with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He performed the duties of Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and was responsible for advising the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Secretary of Defense on all matters pertaining to the development and execution of US national defense policy and strategy. Previously, he was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.

Mark Fitzpatrick is the Executive Director of the IISS-Americas, as well as head of the IISS Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Programme. He joined IISS in 2005, after 26 years at the State Department, and moved back to Washington in December 2015. His research focus is on preventing nuclear dangers through non-proliferation, nuclear security, and arms control.