Regional Security and Okinawa in the U.S.-Japan Alliance

Derek Mitchell, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense

Derek Mitchell is the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. Until 2009, Mr. Mitchell served as a senior fellow and the director of the Asia Division of the Internationa Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He concurrently served as the director of CSIS' Southeast Asia Initiative. Mr. Mitchell was the special assistant for Asian and Pacific affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in which position he alternately served as the senior country director for China, Taiwan, Mongolia and Hong Kong; the director for regional security affairs; the country director for Japan; and the senior country director for the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

James Auer is the director of the Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and Cooperation at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies. He served for 20 years as a naval officer, commanding a frigate homeported in Japan and attending the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Staff College. Dr. Auer also served as the Special Assistant for Japan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for ten years.

Rust Deming joined SAIS as an adjunct professor in Japan Studies after a 38-year career in the Foreign Service. His last overseas post was as ambassador to Tunisia. He served as the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, a senior advisor to the assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau's senior advisor to the United Nations General Assembly. Amb. Deming served in Japan as the Charge d'Affaires, ad interim and as the deputy chief of mission.

Akihiro Iwashita is a professor and director of the Slavic Research Center at Hokkaido University in Japan. Previously, he was a visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. He was awarded the 2007 JSPS Prize and the 2006 Osaragi Jiro Prize for Commentary. Professor Iwashita's publications include Toward a New Dialogue on Eurasia: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its Partners; and Eager Eyes Fixed on Eurasia: Vol. 1 Russia and its Neighbors in Crisis and Vol. 2 Russia and its Eastern Edge.

Eiichi Katahara, Deputy Director of Research, National Institute for Defense Studies

Eiichi Katahara is a professor at and deputy director of the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) of the Japanese Ministry of Defense. Prior to joining NIDS, he was a professor of international relations at Kobe Gakuin University, a visiting fellow at Stanford University's Asia-Pacific Research Center and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

Satu Limaye, Director, East-West Center in Washington

Satu Limaye is the director of the East-West Center in Washington. Immediately prior to being appointed, he worked with the Institute for Defense Analyses as a member of the research staff. Previously, he served as the director of the Honolulu-based Asia-Pacific Center for Securities Studies' research and publications division. Dr. Limaye was an Abe Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy's International Forum for Democratic Studies, a Luce Scholar and the head of programs on South Asia at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. He has also written, edited and co-edited numerous books, monographs and studies, including US, Australia and Japan and the New Security Triangle; Japan in a Dynamic Asia; Special Assessment: The Asia-Pacific and the United States, 2004-2005; Religious Radicalism in South Asia; and Special Assessment: Asia's China Debate. Dr. Limaye earned his Ph.D. at Oxford University's Magdalene College as a Marshall Scholar.

Shinichi Ogawa, Visiting Professor, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Shinichi Ogawa has been a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University since leaving his position as the director of the research department at the Japanese Ministry of Defense's National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS). He started his career as a research assistant at NIDS in 1978. His publications include "Obama Seiken no kakugunbikanri gunshuku seisaku no yukue" ("A Prospect for the Obama Administration's Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament Policy") in the October, 2009 issue of Kaigai jijo (the Journal of World Affairs).

Manabu Sato, Professor, Okinawa International University

Manabu Sato, currently a professor at Okinawa International University, graduated from Waseda University and Pittsburgh University. Two of his works are US Congress and its Activities toward Japan: 1980-1990 and Futenma/Henoko and the Bible Discourse: American Foreign and Domestic Policies. He also wrote "Forced to 'Choose' its Own Subjugation: Okinawa's Place in U.S. Global Military Realignment".

Tomohiro Yara, Editorial Writer, Okinawa Times

Tomohiro Yara joined the staff of the Okinawa Times in 1988 and is currently one of their editorial writers. In the past, he has also acted as Vice Director of the Social Section. Mr. Yara was a visiting fellow at the East-West Center from 2007 to 2008. His most recent book is The US-Japan Alliance on Sand, for which he received an honorable mention in the 15th Peace and Cooperative Journalist Fund of Japan Prize. Mr. Yara graduated from the University of the Philippines.