Sheila A. Smith

John E. Merow Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific Studies

Asia Program

Japan Rearmed

April 8, 2019

Constitutional Change in Japan

March 17, 2021

Nationalism, Japan, and a Changing Asia

Introduction to Nationalism, Japan, and a Changing Asia

July 23, 2020

Expert Bio

Sheila A. Smith is John E. Merow senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Japanese politics and foreign policy, she is the author of Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China (released in Japanese as 日中親愛なる宿敵: 変容する日本政治と対中政策), and Japan's New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. She is also the author of the CFR interactive guide Constitutional Change in Japan. Smith is a regular contributor to the CFR blog Asia Unbound and a frequent contributor to major media outlets in the United States and Asia.

Smith joined CFR from the East-West Center in 2007, where she directed a multinational research team in a cross-national study of the domestic politics of the U.S. military presence in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. She was a visiting scholar at Keio University in 2007-08, where she researched Japan’s foreign policy towards China, supported by the Abe Fellowship. Smith has been a visiting researcher at two leading Japanese foreign and security policy think tanks, the Japan Institute of International Affairs and the Research Institute for Peace and Security, and at the University of Tokyo and the University of the Ryukyus.

Smith is chair of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) and the U.S. advisors to the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), a binational advisory panel of government officials and private-sector members. She teaches as an adjunct professor at the Asian studies department of Georgetown University and serves on the board of its Journal of Asian Affairs. She also serves on the advisory committee for the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future program of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation.

Smith earned her MA and PhD from the political science department at Columbia University.

affiliations

CULCON/Japan-United States Friendship Commission, chair
Georgetown University, adjunct professor
Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Next Generation Leaders Program, senior advisor
National Bureau of Asian Research, editor for Asia policy

Media Inquiries

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Japan’s Difficult Summer

As the United States begins to see light at the end of the tunnel with COVID-19, Japan remains locked in its struggle with the pandemic. On May 24, 2021, the Biden Administration raised the travel a…

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The Quad in the Indo-Pacific: What to Know

The Quad, composed of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan, is not a formal alliance. Still, the group has intensified its security and economic ties as tensions with China rise.

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Expert Bio

affiliations

Media Inquiries

Spotlight on Japan

Expert analysis and event highlights from the Japan Studies program. Quarterly.

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