Biden and Asia: Perspectives From the Region

Previously, she oversaw the Journal’s coverage of Asian markets and finance, as well as companies and business trends from Hong Kong. She was also deputy bureau chief in Japan. She joined the Journal in 1999 and has reported from Tokyo, San Francisco and Toronto, covering everything from Japan’s financial-system meltdown and U.S. executive compensation to polar bears and the downfall of the BlackBerry. Phred has a BA in American Studies from Yale University and masters in Journalism and Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

He has held leadership, research and academic positions with some of the world's leading institutions and universities, including the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Sydney, and the Australian National University.  

He has published eight books and over 150 other publications.  His next book, on China's foreign policy under Xi Jinping, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2021.  His current research projects include a focus on the modernisation of Chinese strategic forces (nuclear, cyber, space) and how U.S. allies are balancing relations between China and America. 

Prior to joining the IISS, Yuka served as a research associate with the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she managed projects and provided independent analysis on US–Japan relations and US strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. She also has experience providing policy and business analysis on Asia's high-tech and defence industries at the Avascent Group and the Asia Group in Washington DC. She previously reported and published news stories on Japanese political, economic and business affairs at the Tokyo bureaus of the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and the Japan Times.

She holds a Master's in Asian Studies from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a BA in law from Keio University, where she completed an academic year at the University of California, Berkeley.

She is also affiliated with the Asia-Pacific Initiative in Tokyo as the inaugural Matsumoto-Samata Fellow.

The IISS fellowship has been made possible by support from the Asia-Pacific Initiative, Matsumoto-san, and Samata-san.

Dr Lynn Kuok is a visiting professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and has taught at the US Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. She is also a senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge.

She is a former Brookings Institution expert and has held fellowships at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore. She served as editor-in-chief of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and the Singapore Law Review. She is an advocate and solicitor and has worked in broadcast media.

Dr Kuok speaks regularly at international conferences and has presented her work at leading universities, including Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of Cambridge. Her analysis has featured in Foreign Affairs and The Wall Street Journal, amongst others. She has been interviewed by and quoted in various broadcast and print media, including the BBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera and The New York Times.

She sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Geopolitics and was a Council Member on its Global Future Council on International Security. She was a Munich Young Leader and a Southeast Asian Young Leader.

She founded the non-profit public policy think tank, Civic Exchange and was its first CEO. She was a legislator in Hong Kong; and Undersecretary for the Environment in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (2012-17). She is a lawyer by training and a commodities trader by profession before she became involved in full-time politics and policy.

Professor Loh is also well-known for her leadership work in convening multidisciplinary stakeholder engagements. She uses a set of skills, which she calls ‘Sustainability Tools’ to assist complex deliberations. Her major policy interests today include Asia achieving carbon neutrality by 2050-60, and US-China relations.

Professor Loh serves on the boards of CDP Worldwide, Global Maritime Forum, and Robert HN Ho Family Foundation. She is an advisor to HSBC’s Climate Advisory Panel, and BASF’s Stakeholder Advisory Council. She has published many academic and popular works.

Its 150+ employees and experts are based in 24 offices across the region, and maintain local and trusted networks, and intimate knowledge of decision-makers and experience in advising companies on their legislative and regulatory engagement, and strategic communications posturing.

He was a former Chair and retired Associate Professor of the Political Science Department of De La Salle University-Manila. He has authored numerous commentaries and papers on geopolitical issues, governance and political reforms.

He obtained his Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Bachelor’s Degree in Philippine Studies, Major in Political Science and History, from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. A member of Phi Gamma Mu International Honors’ Society Beta Chapter, he specializes in Strategic Studies and Management, Legislative Research, and Public Policy Analysis.

His research interest and field of specialization had led him to pursue active involvement in legislation, bureaucratic work, and civil society advocacy. Among the government positions he held include Undersecretary for External Affairs and Special Concerns of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports and Deputy Secretary for Administration and Financial Services of the Philippine Senate. Meanwhile, his legislative experience encompasses the 8th, the 9th, 10th and the 12th Congress as the Chief of Staff of the late Former Senate President Edgardo Angara and senior policy research adviser in key senate committees, such as Education, Agriculture, Economic Affairs, Social Justice and Electoral Reforms, and Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Laws. Since 1987, he has been involved in all national elections in different capacities, from policy consultancy to campaign strategy.

After his stint in government, he became involved with many different consortiums and networks of civil society groups—as Lead Convenor of citizen-led initiative, Democracy Watch Philippines, and Convenor of pro-industry group, Philippine Business for Environmental Stewardship (PBEST).

He is also a Fellow of the Foundation for Economic Freedom, a public advocacy organization dedicated to advancing economic and political liberty and other market-oriented reforms, and is a Regular Member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), a non-stock, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the professionalization of Philippine corporate directorship.

Similarly, his involvement with the distinguished Philippine Trade Foundation is aligned with the group’s commitment toward building a strategic and reformed business environment. His international reach is evident in his key role in the establishment of the U.S.-Philippines Strategic Initiative (USPSI) with the Philippine Eminent Persons Group, and is also an advisor to the Board of Asia Society Philippines, another cooperative organization, this time in the area of education.

Moreover, he was appointed as one of the ASEAN Regional Forum Experts and Eminent Persons (ARF EEPs) by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Today, he regularly contributes articles and columns to leading newspapers, Philippine Daily Inquirer and BusinessWorld.

Richard most recently served as Deputy Secretary, Indo-Pacific Group, in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In 2017, Richard was head of the whole-of-government taskforce which supported the preparation of the Australian Government’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. Mr. Maude was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments from May 2013 until November 2016. 

Before taking up the position of Director-General ONA, Mr. Maude was the senior adviser on foreign policy and national security issues in the Office of the Prime Minister.

He has been associated with a number of think tanks in New Delhi, including the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, the Centre for Policy Research and the Observer Research Foundation. He was also the founding director of Carnegie India, New Delhi – the sixth international centre of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC.  He was the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in International Affairs at the United States Library of Congress, Washington DC, from 2009 to 2010. He served on India’s National Security Advisory Board. He led the Indian Chapter of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 1999 to 2006.

He writes a regular column for the Indian Express and was earlier the Strategic Affairs Editor for The Hindu newspaper, Chennai. He is on the editorial boards of a number of Indian and international journals on world politics.

Professor Mohan has a Master’s degree in nuclear physics and a PhD in international relations. Among his recent books are Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific (2013) and Modi’s World: Expanding India’s Sphere of Influence (2015).