Speakers:

• Hideshi Tokuchi (Senior Fellow of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS))
• Celine Pajon (Head of Japan Research at the Center for Asian Studies of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI))
• Jagannath P. Panda (Research Fellow and Centre Coordinator for East Asia at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA))
• Stephen Nagy (Senior associate professor, International Christian University in Tokyo. Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI). Visiting fellow, the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA).)

Overview

In January 2021, Canada joined the QUAD exercises in an event called the Sea Dragon 21 exercises. This was followed by the QUAD virtual leaders’ summit in which QUAD members agreement to boost vaccine development and distribution to emerging states and the France- organized multination three-day Le Pérouse naval exercise commenced in the Bay of Bengal on April 5 with QUAD members. What do these activities tell us about the evolution of the QUAD? Will the QUAD transform away from its current arrangement towards a functional QUAD-plus formulation? How will a QUAD-plus contribute to a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific? We are pleased to be joined by four expert speakers who will provide their views and insight on the QUAD and QUAD-plus through an interactive dialogue.

Speakers:

Hideshi Tokuchi

Senior Fellow of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)

Professor Hideshi Tokuchi joined the Defense Agency (the predecessor of the Ministry of Defense) of Japan in 1979 and served as the nation’s first-ever Vice-Minister of Defense for International Affairs from July 2014 to October 2015 after assuming several senior assignments in the Ministry including Director-General of Defense Policy Bureau. He is a visiting professor and a senior fellow of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo as well as a Senior Research Adviser for Nakasone Peace Institute (NPI) also in Tokyo Professor Tokuchi was born in 1955. He received his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Tokyo in 1979, and his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (M.A.L.D.) degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1986. His recent articles include “The Biden Administration and Japan’s Security Strategy,” Security Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 2021, pp. 73-92, and “Maintaining the rules-based international order in the age of the US-China rivalry,” The European Security and Defence Union, Issue 37, December 2020, p. 23, https://magazine-the-european.com/archive/.

Celine Pajon

Head of Japan Research at the Center for Asian Studies of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)

Celine Pajon is Head of Japan Research at the Center for Asian Studies of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Paris, where she has been a Research Fellow since 2008. She has also joined the Japan Program at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) as a Senior researcher since October 2020. Céline is an International Research Fellow with the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) in Tokyo and was a visiting fellow with the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA), Tokyo, back in 2016. Her area of expertise is Japan’s foreign and defense policy, as well as geostrategic dynamics of the Indo-Pacific area. She is closely following French and European approaches to the region. Her latest publications include: “France’s strategic engagement in the Indo-Pacific makes a difference: Here is why”, Column, Canon Institute for International Studies, April 2021 and “The EU-Japan partnership in the Indo-Pacific: opportunities and challenges”, Analysis of Elcano Royal Institute, March 2021. She tweets @CelinePajon

Jagannath P. Panda

Research Fellow and Centre Coordinator for East Asia at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA)

Dr. Jagannath P. Panda is a Research Fellow and Centre Coordinator for East Asia at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi, India. He is the Series Editor for Routledge Studies on Think Asia. Dr. Panda is the author of the book India-China Relations: Politics of Resources, Identity and Authority in a Multipolar World Order(Routledge: 2017). He is also the author of the book China’s Path to Power: Party, Military and the Politics of State Transition(Pentagon Press: 2010). Dr. Panda has also edited a number of books to his credit. Most recently, he has published an edited volume Scaling India-Japan Cooperation in Indo-Pacific and Beyond 2025: Connectivity, Corridors and Contours(KW Publishing Ltd. 2019), and The Korean Peninsula and Indo-Pacific Power Politics: Status Security at Stake(Routledge, 2020).

Stephen Nagy

Senior associate professor, International Christian University in Tokyo. Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI). Visiting fellow, the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA).

Dr. Stephen Nagy is a senior associate professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI) and a visiting fellow with the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA). 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”, and “Perceptions and drivers of Chinese view on Japanese and US Foreign Policy in the Region”. He is currently working on middle power approaches to great power competition in the Indo-Pacific. His latest publications include: 2021 Nagy, S.R. 2021. “Indo-Pacific Resilience, Prosperity and Stability: Canada’s Capabilities-led Approach to Strategic Free and Open Indo-Pacific Engagement,” in Canadian and Japanese FOIP Visions. Policy Perspectives, Canadian Global Affairs Institute. March 3rd, 2021. ISBN: 978-3-030-67770-1; Nagy, S. R. 2021. “Sino-Japanese Reactive Diplomacy as seen through the Interplay of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision (FOIP).” China Report: 1–15. DOI: 10.1177/0009445520984735.; Nagy, S. R. 2020. “Quad-Plus? Carving out Canada’s Middle Power Role.” Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs. Special Issue. Quad Plus: Form versus Substance, vol. 3, no. 5: 179–195. ISSN 2576-5361 (Print); ISSN 2576-537X (Online).