Profile
Research Fellow, National Institute for Defense Studies, Ministry of Defense, Japan
Riho Aizawa
U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, the Indo-Pacific Region
Riho Aizawa is a research fellow at the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), Ministry of Defense, Japan. Since 2021, she has contributed to policy development as a research fellow at NIDS and has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor in the Ministry of Defense’s Indo-Pacific Policy Division. She was a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute from October to November 2024. Prior to her current role, she was a policy research fellow in 2021 at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a research intern at the Hudson Institute from 2018 to 2019.
She has a Master’s degree from the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (2023), a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Gakushuin Women’s College (2020), and a Bachelor’s degree from Gakushuin Women’s College (2016). She has been recognized with multiple honors, including the Japan-US Partnership Program Fellowship from the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) and the YKK Group’s Yoshida Scholarship.
Her recent publications include “Japanese Ministry of Defense’s ‘Defense Diplomacy’: Revitalized Engagement with ASEAN and Pacific Island Countries,” NIDS Commentary, no. 342, July 22, 2024; “Revitalization of the U.S.-Japan Alliance and a Rising China: Adjusting Engagement and Balancing Policies during the Clinton Administration,” Master’s thesis, the George Washington University, 2023; “Reframing the Indo-Pacific and Managing Relations with Like-Minded Countries,” U.S.-Japan Alliance Cooperation in the Post-Pandemic World, ed. by Yuki Tatsumi and Pamela Kennedy (Washington D.C.: Stimson Center, 2022), 11–23; and “Koramu 1: Ukuraina Sensō ga Jakki suru Chūgoku Shidōbu no Fuan” [Column 1: Chinese Leadership Unsettled by Ukraine War] in Ukuraina sensō no shōgeki [Impact of Ukraine War], ed. by Masayuki Masuda (Tokyo: the National Institute for Defense Studies, 2022)
She has also contributed to research projects on Taiwan contingency response and regional security risks with the Nakasone Peace Institute and the Japan Institute of International Affairs.