Event: Maritime Security Challenges in Asia: Implications for Japan and Australia - Dr Ken Jimbo

Dr Ken Jimbo, with Rory Medcalf and Murray McLean AO

Maritime security tensions have worsened in recent years in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. The problem has included an increasingly assertive approach by China involving pressure in a ‘grey zone’ short of the use of force. At the same time, China has built up its so-called anti-access military capabilities to raise the risks for the United States, Japan and others in any future confrontation. These developments are dramatically changing the dynamics of conflict prevention and conflict management in Asia.

In this lecture, one of Japan’s leading experts in strategic studies, Dr Ken Jimbo, will assess these critical regional security challenges as well as options for addressing them, with a focus on the implications for Japan and Australia. The event will also feature a panel discussion and a Q & A session involving Dr Jimbo along with the Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, Rory Medcalf, and former Australian Ambassador to Japan and Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow, Murray McLean AO.

Dr Ken Jimbo is a Senior Fellow with the Tokyo Foundation, Assistant Professor at Keio University and Senior Research Fellow with the Canon Institute for Policy Studies. He earned his doctorate from the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, in 2005. Has been a visiting research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and has published extensively on Asia-Pacific security issues.

Rory Medcalf is Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution and a member of the expert panel providing advice on the Australian Government’s 2015 Defence White Paper. A former diplomat and intelligence analyst, he is currently leading major research projects on maritime security and nuclear issues in Indo-Pacific Asia, supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Murray McLean AO is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. He spent 42 years as an officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade until his retirement in 2012. Much of his career has been spent on the formulation of Australian policy towards Asia. A fluent Chinese speaker, he served at the Australian Embassy in Beijing (twice), in Shanghai as Consul General, in Washington and as High Commissioner to Singapore. In 2004 he was posted as Australia’s Ambassador to Japan where he remained until August 2011.