SPF NUS-ISAS Joint Webinar Part 2
Institutionalising the Quad: Can it Seize the Momentum for the Future?

Dr Kei Koga is Assistant Professor at the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). His research focuses on International Relations theory, International Security, International Institutions, and East Asian security, including the transformation of the United States’ (US) bilateral security networks and ASEAN-led institutions in the Indo-Pacific region. He was visiting fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2017; a Japan-US Partnership Fellow at the Research Institute for Peace and Security, Tokyo, from 2012 to 2014; Postdoctoral Fellow in the International Studies Program, The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, from 2012 to 2013; a Vasey Fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS in from 2009 to 2010; and RSIS-MacArthur visiting associate fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU, in 2010.

He has published on topics that include East Asian security, the US and Japanese foreign policies, the US-Japan alliance and ASEAN. His recent publication includes a book, Reinventing Regional Security Institutions in Asia and Africa (Routledge 2017); Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” Strategy: Tokyo’s Tactical Hedging and the Implications for ASEAN (Contemporary Southeast Asia, 2019); The Concept of “Hedging” Revisited: The Case of Japan’s Foreign Policy Strategy in East Asia’s Power Shift (International Studies Review, 2018); and ASEAN’s Evolving Institutional Strategy: Managing Great Power Politics in South China Sea Disputes (Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2018). His current book project is Managing Great Power Politics: ASEAN, Institutional Strategy, and South China Sea. He received his PhD in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

Dr Lavina Lee is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University, Sydney. She is the author of the book, US Hegemony and International Legitimacy: Norms Power and Followership in the Wars on Iraq (Routledge, 2010), and has published numerous articles, book chapters and commentary on Indian foreign and security policy, nuclear proliferation, United States foreign policy, and security relations in the Indo-Pacific. Her current research focuses on maritime security and strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, and nuclear proliferation in East Asia. She also periodically publishes opinion pieces in The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Hindustan Times and the New Straits Times, as well as with specialist policy outlets such as The Lowy Interpreter and ASPI Strategist.

Dr Lee has commerce and law degrees from the University of NSW, an MA in International Peace and Security from King’s College, University of London, and a PhD in International Relations from Sydney University. Prior to joining Macquarie University, Dr Lee was a political risk consultant with Control Risks Group.

In June 2020, Dr Lee was appointed by the Australian Minister of Defence to the position of Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Council, Canberra. This is a three-year appointment.

Dr Jagannath Panda is a Research Fellow and Coordinator of the East Asia Centre at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MD-IDSA), New Delhi. He joined MD-IDSA in 2006. Dr Panda is in charge of the East Asia Centre’s academic and administrative activities, including Track-II and Track 1.5 dialogues with Chinese, Japanese and Korean think-tanks/institutes. He is a recipient of the V K Krishna Menon Memorial Gold Medal (2000) from the Indian Society of International Law & Diplomacy in New Delhi.

Dr Panda is the author of India-China Relations: Politics of Resources, Identity and Authority in a Multipolar World Order (Routledge: 2017); and China’s Path to Power: Party, Military and the Politics of State Transition (Pentagon Press: 2010). Dr Panda has edited two volumes, China’s Transition under Xi Jinping (Pentagon Press: 2016); and India-Taiwan Relations in Asia and Beyond: The Future (Pentagon Press: 2016), and have co-edited two volumes, Towards a New Asian Order (Pentagon Press: 2012); and Revisiting Contemporary South Asia: Politics, Economics and Security (Pentagon Press: 2012). Dr Panda is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Asian Public Policy (Routledge). He is a non-Resident Fellow (honorary) at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), Sweden, and also affiliated (honorary) to the Institute of Transnational Studies, Germany/Italy.

He obtained his doctorate (PhD) from the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2007. He received a Master in Philosophy (MPhil) from the Department of Chinese & Japanese Studies (now East Asian studies) and studied his Master of Arts at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.

Mr Ippeita Nishida is a Senior Research Fellow of the International Peace and Security Department at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF). In this position, he conducts research on Japan’s foreign engagement policies and tools, in particular, foreign aid and security cooperation (defense diplomacy). Additionally, he manages and oversees the mutual visitation exchange program for senior field officers between the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Vietnamese People’s Army, a flagship initiative of SPF on defense cooperation. Currently, he serves as an expert panel member of the Development Assistance Accountability Committee at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and he teaches at the Hosei University and the Aoyama Gakuin University as an adjunct lecturer.

Prior to joining SPF in October 2016, he held the position of research fellow at the Tokyo Foundation where he worked on several key policy research projects and published reports such as The Quad Plus: Towards a Shared Strategic Vision for the Indo-Pacific (co-editor, Wisdom Tree Publisher, 2015); Rethinking Japan’s Foreign Aid: Widening the Scope of Assistance from a Security Perspective (co-author and editor, the Tokyo Foundation, 2014); and Maritime Security and the Right of Self-Defense in Peacetime (co-author and editor, the Tokyo Foundation, 2013).

Mr Nishida earned his MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.