Professor URATA will discuss FOIP from the viewpoint of supply change diversification, trade and stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.

Shujiro URATA is former Professor of Economics at Graduate School Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, currently Faculty Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Specially Appointed Fellow at the Japanese Centre for Economic Research (JCER), Senior Research Advisor, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Visiting Researcher, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). Professor Urata received his BA in Economics from Keio University, MA and Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. He is a former Research Associate at the Brookings Institution, an Economist at the World Bank. He specializes in international economics and has published a number of books and articles on international economic issues. His recent co-edited books include East Asian Integration: Goods, Services, and Investment, Routledge, 2019 and East Asian Integration: Goods, Services and Investment, Routledge, 2019.

He will focus on Canadian contributions to Indo-Pacific regional resilience. 

Stephen has been a Senior Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the International Christian University since September 2014.

Concurrently, he is a Research fellow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI) and a Visiting Fellow with the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA). Previously he was selected as a Distinguished Fellow for the Asia Pacific Foundation from 2017-2020.

Prior to returning to Tokyo, he was an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from Dec. 2009 -Jan. 2014. He obtained his PhD from Waseda University, Japan in International Relations in Dec. 2008 and worked as a Research Associate at the Institute of Asia Pacific Studies at Waseda University from Oct. 2007 -Nov. 2009.

His recent funded research projects are “Sino-Japanese Relations in the Wake of the 2012 Territorial Disputes: Investigating changes in Japanese Business’ trade and investment strategy in China”. Currently he is conducting a research project entitled “Perceptions and drivers of Chinese view on Japanese and US Foreign Policy in the Region.” He has also done extensive work on how middle powers are engaging in the Indo-Pacific.

Cleo will focus on Canadian developmental policies in the Oceania part of the Indo-Pacific focusing on development as a critical tool to inculcate more strategic autonomy into the region. 

Cleo Pascal is an Associate Fellow with Chatham House, London, U.K. (a.k.a. Royal Institute of International Affairs); Non-Resident Senior Fellow for the Indo-Pacific with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Washington, D.C.; International Board of Advisors, Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies (India); and International Board of Advisors, Global Counter Terrorism Council, India. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales de l'Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM) where, as a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Visiting Fellow, she led a multi-year research project on Canada and strategic shifts in the Indo-Pacific. She has lectured at, among many others, the US Army War College, Center for Homeland Defense & Security (Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey), Inter-American Defence Board (D.C.), the Royal College of Defence Studies (U.K.), the National Defence College (India), Centre for National Security Studies (Canadian Forces College), and the National Defence College (Oman). She is currently completing a Chatham House research project on perceptions of strategic shifts in the Indo-Pacific from the points of view of the U.S., Japan, India, Oceania, the U.K., and France.

Jonathan will focus on Canadian maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and public diplomacy.

Jonathan is an international affairs professional with expertise on security, defense, intelligence and geo-economic issues in the Indo-Pacific.  He has held a variety of positions in the private and public sector. Currently, he is a senior fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). Miller is also director and senior fellow of the Indo-Pacific program at the Ottawa-based Macdonald Laurier Institute,  Senior Fellow on East Asia for the Tokyo-based Asian Forum Japan and  the Director and co-founder of the Council on International Policy.

Previously, he was an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, based in Tokyo. Jonathan also held a fellowship on Japan with the Pacific Forum CSIS from 2013-16.  At the Pacific Forum CSIS, he chaired a ten-member group focussed on Japan-Korea relations, in the context of the US “rebalance” to Asia.  Other former appointments and roles include terms as a  Distinguished Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, and Senior Fellow on East Asia for the  New York-based EastWest Institute.

Miller has held a number of other visiting fellowships on Asian security matters, including at JIIA and the National Institute of Defense Studies (Ministry of Defense - Japan). In addition, Miller previously spent nearly a decade in the public sector in Canada working on geopolitical and security issues pertaining to the Asia-Pacific.

He regularly attends track 1.5 and track 2 dialogues across the Asia-Pacific region on security and intelligence issues, and is one of Canada's representatives on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Eminent and Expert Persons Group. He also regularly provides advice and presents to universities, corporations, multilateral organizations and government on regional geopolitics.

Colin Robertson, a former diplomat, is Vice President and Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and hosts its regular The Global Exchange podcast.  He is an Executive Fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. Robertson sits on the advisory councils of  the Johnson-Shoyama School of Public Policy, North  American Research Partnership, the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Ottawa and the Conference of Defence Associations Institute  He is an Honorary Captain (Royal Canadian Navy) assigned to the Strategic Communications Directorate. During his Foreign Service career, he served as first Head of the Advocacy Secretariat and Minister at the Canadian Embassy in Washington and Consul General in Los Angeles, as Consul and Counsellor in Hong Kong and in New York at the UN and Consulate General. A member of the teams that negotiated the Canada-U.S. FTA and then the NAFTA, he is a member of the Deputy Minister of International Trade’s NAFTA Advisory Council and the North American Forum.  He writes on foreign affairs for the Globe and Mail and he is a frequent contributor to other media. The Hill Times has named him as one of those that influence Canadian foreign policy, most recently in their 2018 'top forty'.