Dear all,

The Strategic Communications Education and Research Unit (SCERU) and the Graduate School of Public Policy of the University of Tokyo (GraSPP) are pleased to invite you to the seminar as detailed below:

DATE & TIME:

Friday 28 June 2024

5:00 pm - 6:15 pm (JST),
* 9:00am - 10:15 am (BST), 10:00 am - 11:15 am (CEST)

REGISTRATION:

This seminar will be held both onsite and online.

Registration for Online (webinar): Please register here.

Registration for Onsite Venue: Please register here.

[Venue] Ito International Research Center (3rd Floor, Lecture Room/中教室),
Hongo campus, the University of Tokyo

For security reasons, please bring your ID with you to enter the venue.

LANGUAGE:

English

SYNOPSIS:

2024 is marked by a large number of elections taking place around the world, some of which are so important that their results will determine the future of geopolitics in key regions and will have global implications. Elections are important strategic communications events. One such dimension is that elections can showcase malign external interference by actors that attempt to influence elections results in their favor. Another is that elections test the resilience of nations' institutions and electoral processes, hence presenting an opportunity to either prove or disprove the vitality of their democracies. Either way, both outcomes carry messages about the future of democracy.

How can nations and institutions of Europe and the Indo-Pacific advance and promote free and fair electoral processes? Do these efforts ultimately promote democracy globally?

In this panel, distinguished panelists from Japan, Indonesia, India and the European Union will share their own approaches to ensuring free and fair electoral processes and democracy, ranging from support for good governance (Japan) and countering FIMI (EU). Panelists will also discuss their experiences in elections, including the most recent elections in Indonesia (February), India (March-June) and European Parliament (June). Panelists will exchange views on their strategic communications and counter FIMI lessons of their region's elections and longer-term views of their impact for Europe and the Indo-Pacific.

This seminar will be moderated by Dr. Chiyuki Aoi, Professor and Director, SCERU.

SPEAKERS:

* listed in alphabetical order by last name

Mr Quentin Genaille
Policy Officer in the Threat Actors and Responses Team of the Information Integrity and Countering FIMI Division at the European External Action Service (EEAS)
Mr Vahd Nabyl A. Mulachela
Head of the Center for Policy Strategy for the Asia Pacific and Africa Region, Foreign Policy Strategy Agency, Indonesia

Prof Jagannath P. Panda
Head, Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA), Institute for Security & Development Policy (ISDP), Sweden; Professor, University of Warsaw

Mr Noriyuki Shikata
Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs, Prime Minister's Office of Japan

Mr Quentin Genaille is Policy Officer in the Threat Actors and Responses Team of the Information Integrity and Countering FIMI Division at the European External Action Service (EEAS). His work has focused on Chinese interference and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). He has previously worked as a fellow researcher and an editorial assistant. He holds a Master's in Political Communication from Université Libre de Bruxelles and a Master's in Chinese Language and Civilization from INALCO.

Mr Vahd Nabyl A. Mulachela is the Head of the Center for Policy Strategy for the Asia Pacific and Africa Region, Foreign Policy Strategy Agency in Indonesia. He is a diplomat with experience in bilateral and multilateral affairs covering strategic partnerships, social development and health issues and served as Senior Adviser on Partnerships to the 73rd and 74th Presidents of the General Assembly of the United Nations. He is one of the editors of the book The Future of Diplomacy After COVID-19 Multilateralism and the Global Pandemic (Routledge: 2021).
Mr Vahd holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Parahyangan University in Bandung, Indonesia, a Master's degree in Humanities from Joensuu University in Finland, and a postgraduate diploma in diplomatic studies from Oxford University, UK.

Prof Jagannath Panda is the Head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) at the Institute for Security and Development. Policy (ISDP), Sweden. He is also a Professor at the Department of Regional and Global Studies at the University of Warsaw and a Senior Fellow at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies in the Netherlands. As a senior expert on China, East Asia, and Indo-Pacific affairs, Prof. Panda has testified to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission at the US Congress on 'China and South Asia'.
Prof Panda is the Series Editor for Routledge Studies on Think Asia. He is the author of the book India-China Relations (Routledge:2017) and China's Path to Power: Party, Military and the Politics of State Transition (Pentagon Press: 2010). Prof Panda's recent edited works are: Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific (Routledge: 2021), and India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity Emergence of a Possible Indo-Pacific Axis? (Routledge: 2023); and co-edited works are: Chinese Politics and Foreign Policy under Xi Jinping (Routledge:2021), The Future of Korean Peninsula: Korea 2032 and Beyond (Routledge: 2021); Mongolia and Northeast Asian Security Nuclear Proliferation, Environment, and Civilisational Confrontations (Routledge: 2022).

Mr Noriyuki "Nori" Shikata was appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs under Prime Minister Fumio KISHIDA in October 2021.
He was Assistant Minister/Director General, Economic Affairs Bureau of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2020-21).
His other prior positions include: Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in China (2017-19); Deputy Director General, Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, MOFA (2016-17); Political Minister, Embassy of Japan in the U.K.(2012-14); Director of Global Communications, Prime Minister's Office(2010-12), Director of respectively, Economic Treaties, Second North America (Japan-U.S. economic issues), International Press, and Status of U.S. Forces Agreement Divisions of MOFA.

He was also a Visiting Professor at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Law/Public Policy (Japan's diplomacy), and Associate, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University. He holds a B.A. in Law from Kyoto University and Master of Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

He is a winner of the Gold Standard Award for Political Communications 2011. His X (twitter) handle is: @norishikata.

ABOUT SCERU:

In June 2022, the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP) at the University of Tokyo established the Strategic Communications Education and Research Unit (SCERU) to conduct research and education on Strategic Communications. The Unit's establishment was supported by the European Union's Enhancing Security In and With Asia (ESIWA) project.
The Unit organises programmes for teaching, academic and policy research, and professional seminars and engagement sessions on Strategic Communications, including the following:

• The European Union-supported education and research programmes (academic courses, practitioner engagement, public engagement, and research projects), initially focused on 'Ambiguity as Strategic Communications Praxis' (completed fall 2023)

• Executive Course on Strategic Communications [Shakaijin kōza]

• JSPS-funded international comparative study of the systems and institutions of strategic communications and countermeasures against foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI)

• Public Seminars

CONTACT FOR INQUIRY:

GraSPP Research Seminar Secretariat
Email: graspp_eventinfo<at>pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp (please replace <at> with @)

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