JCIE USA is pleased to announce Dr. Sheila M. Smith, John E. Merow Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), as a new member of our Board of Trustees as of January 1, 2026. Board Chair Peggy Blumenthal welcomed Dr. Smith, stating, “We are delighted to be joined by Dr. Smith, a renowned expert of Japanese politics and foreign policy who has spent decades leading research on these topics and cultivating public understanding of Japan in the international community. Dr. Smith brings a wealth of experience in promoting people-to-people exchanges between the United States and Japan, including as former US Chair of the US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) and the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC). We look forward to benefitting from her sound advice as JCIE USA continues to facilitate US-Japan policy dialogues and exchanges in areas of mutual interest and need between the two countries.”
In addition to the above, Dr. Smith is the author of Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China, and Japan’s New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. 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. Dr. Smith has previously worked at the East-West Center, was a visiting scholar at Keio University, and has been a visiting researcher at 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. She earned her MA and PhD from the political science department at Columbia University.
In Spring 2025, Dr. Smith received The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from the Government of Japan for her contributions to promoting mutual understanding and cultural exchanges between Japan and the United States.
