Development Cooperation in a Fragmented World
About this Event
About the Talk
At a time of growing geopolitical fragmentation and global uncertainty, development cooperation has become increasingly important to sustaining an open, rules-based international order and addressing shared challenges. Drawing on Japan’s experience, JICA President Akihiko Tanaka will discuss how partnerships with the Global South can promote human security, economic opportunity, technological innovation, and a more inclusive international order. He will also explore how development cooperation, rather than simply providing assistance or charity, can serve as a long-term investment in managing global risks and advancing the security and prosperity of both developing and advanced countries.
This talk is brought to you by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, in conjunction with the International Development Studies Program and the Institute for International Economic Policy.
Doors will open no sooner than 15 minutes before the start time.
The Elliott School can coordinate with the university to reasonably accommodate most disabilities. If you need specific accommodations, please contact the Sigur Center at [email protected]. Requests should be made as soon as possible, but at least three days prior to the program to ensure accommodation.
About the Speaker
Dr. Tanaka Akihiko is President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Before assuming the present post, he was President of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan. Dr. Tanaka's career includes Professor of International Politics at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo (1998-2012, 2015-2017), President of JICA (2012- 2015), Executive Vice President of the University of Tokyo (2009-2012), Professor of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo (2000-2012). Dr. Tanaka's specialty is international politics. He obtained his bachelor's degree in International Relations at the University of Tokyo in 1977 and Ph.D. in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981. He has numerous books and articles on world politics and security issues in Japanese and English including "The New Middle Ages: The World System in the 21st Century" (Tokyo: The International House of Japan, 2002) and "Japan in Asia: Post-Cold-War Diplomacy" (Tokyo: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2017). He received many honors and awards including the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his academic achievements in 2012.
About the Discussant
Christina Fink teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses on international development.
She received her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.
She has combined research, teaching, and international development work throughout her career. Primarily based in mainland Southeast Asia from 1995-2010, her full-time positions and program evaluation consultancies addressed civil society capacity building in Myanmar with particular attention to gender and social inclusion, and political, economic, and social reforms. During this time, she also wrote Living Silence in Burma: Surviving Under Military Rule (Zed Books: 1st edition 2001, 2nd edition 2009) and served as a lecturer and program associate at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Thailand.
In recent years she has contributed to the development of the GenderPro capacity-building and credentialling program run by GW’s Global Women’s Institute in partnership with UNICEF. She also served on the United States Institute of Peace senior study group on Myanmar which produced two reports: China’s Role in Burma’s Internal Conflicts (2018) and Anatomy of the Military Coup and Recommendations for the US Response (2022). Her latest publications have addressed the position of religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, anti-Muslim violence and the role of Facebook, and the many facets of civil society engagement in development in Myanmar.
About the Moderator
Mike Mochizuki is a Non-Resident Visiting Scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. From 1999 to 2025, he held the Japan-US Relations Chair at the Elliott School.
Where is it happening?
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