INDIA in the WEST PACIFIC

Nobukatsu Kanehara is the Executive Director of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and a professor at Reitaku University. He served as Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from 2012 to 2019. In 2013, he became the inaugural Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Secretariat, a role which he held until he retired from government service in 2019. He also served as Deputy Director of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. From 2020 to March 2025, he served as a professor at Doshisha University. Mr. Kanehara’s role in the Cabinet built on a distinguished career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served in several notable positions, including Director-General of the Bureau of International Law, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Policy Bureau, Ambassador in charge of the United Nations and Human Rights. He served abroad as Deputy Chief of Mission in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and as Political Minister at the Embassy of Japan in Washington. He was decorated by the president of the Republic of France with l’Ordre de la Legion d’Honneur.

Professor Harsh V. Pant is Vice President – Studies and Foreign Policy at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. He is also a Professor of International Relations at King’s India Institute, King’s College London, and Honorary Director of the Delhi School of Transnational Affairs at Delhi University.
He has held visiting positions at several academic institutions in India and abroad, including universities in Bangalore, Varanasi, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
His research focuses on Asian security issues, and he has authored multiple books on Indian foreign policy and Indo-Pacific affairs, including "Power and Purpose: Rediscovering Indian Foreign Policy in Amrit Kaal" (Rupa, 2025).
Professor Pant is a regular contributor to Indian and international media outlets such as The Japan Times, The Wall Street Journal, The National (UAE), The Hindustan Times, and The Telegraph.

Captain Yuki Bito is a Japan Maritime Self-Defense (JMSDF) officer. She served as an aide to Administrative Vice-Minister of Ministry of Defense (MOD), a foreign liaison officer at Maritime Staff Office (MSO), a staff member of Defense Intelligence Headquarters (DIH), and a faculty member of the Maritime Command and Staff College (MCSC) in Tokyo. In the US, she served as a liaison officer/military professor at the U.S. Naval War College for four years. She newly established Information Warfare education at JMSDF 2nd Service School in 2023. Also, she has been appointed as a director of Strategic Studies Office at MCSC. She attended Sophia University, earning a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemistry (1996). She also attended the National Defense Academy of Japan, in Yokosuka, Japan, and holds a Master of Security Studies in International Security (2009), and holds PhD in International Security Studies, Takushoku University (2022). Her dissertation examined Chinese Military Intervention by rethinking deterrence theory.

Hsiao-chuan Liao (Mandy, 廖小娟) is Taiwanese scholar and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Department of Political Science from University of South Carolina, U.S.A. Her research interests include international conflict, international relations theory, foreign policy and decision-making, Sino-US-Japan relations, and Indo-Pacific security studies. Her research has appeared in the referred journals such as JANUS.NET, Asian Politics and Policy, Issues & Studies, Taiwan Political Science Review, Taiwanese Journal of Political Science, and Chinese Political Science Review.

Ristian Atriandi SUPRIYANTO (Ristian/Andi) is a lecturer with the Department of International Relations and researcher at the ASEAN Study Center, FISIP, Universitas Indonesia (UI). He is also a research fellow with the Indonesia Sinology Forum (FSI), Jakarta. Ristian obtained a Master of Science in Strategic Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University (RSIS-NTU) in Singapore and a Bachelor of Social Science in International Relations from UI. Before joining UI, he worked for the Maritime Security Programme at RSIS-NTU. Andi comments and writes numerous works on sea power, maritime security, strategic studies, and international relations. His works include a book titled “Naval Modernisation in Southeast Asia: Problems and Prospects for Small and Medium Navies” (Palgrave, 2018) with Geoffrey Till. Ristian earned his doctor of philosophy from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. His PhD dissertation is titled “Competing over America in the Cold War: Australia-Indonesia Relations, 1945-1978.”

Ippeita conducts research on Japan’s foreign engagement policies and tools, in particular, foreign aid and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, as well as international peace operations. He is the lead editor/author on Japan’s Defense Diplomacy (Keiso Shobo, 2021; in Japanese only) and a co-editor/author of ”The European Union as a Security Actor in the Indo-Pacific: Perceptions and Responses from the Region" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) among others. Currently, he serves as the chair of the “Expert Panel on Ministry of Defense Capacity Building” at the Ministry of Defense and an expert panel member of the “Development Assistance Accountability Committee” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. He earned his MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).