Mina Erika Pollmann is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), specialising in international relations and comparative politics. Her research interests focus on Japan’s security and diplomacy, US foreign policy in East Asia, and international relations in the Asia-Pacific. After graduating from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service summa cum laude with a BS in Foreign Service, she worked for TV Tokyo-America and a Washington DC–based risk consulting start-up. Mina is a recipient of the Walter A. Rosenblith Presidential Graduate Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.