Mina Pollmann is a Japan Research Fellow with the LeidenAsiaCentre. Her research interests include Japan’s security and diplomacy, the U.S.-Japan alliance, alliance politics, and Indo-Pacific security. She regularly writes on these topics for The Diplomat. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT, and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Her doctoral dissertation examined the Political Origins of Alliances using historical cases from Japan. She has held visiting research appointments with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science.

Previous work experiences include: Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Japanese Affairs; Associate Political Scientist with the RAND Corporation’s Defense and Political Science Department; and News Producer for TV Tokyo’s Washington, DC Bureau.