Professor Jia Qingguo joined the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) as Visiting Scholar and Payne Distinguished Fellow for the 2022 fall quarter. He currently serves as Professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University. While at APARC, he conducted research on the state and future development of U.S.-China policy.

Stephen Kotkin is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Within FSI, Kotkin is based at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and is affiliated with the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and The Europe Center. He is also the Birkelund Professor in History and International Affairs emeritus at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School), where he taught for 33 years. He earned his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley and has been conducting research in the Hoover Library & Archives for more than three decades.

Kotkin’s research encompasses geopolitics and authoritarian regimes in history and in the present. His publications include Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 (Penguin, 2017) and Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 (Penguin, 2014), two parts of a planned three-volume history of Russian power in the world and of Stalin’s power in Russia. He has also written a history of the Stalin system’s rise from a street-level perspective, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (University of California 1995); and a trilogy analyzing Communism’s demise, of which two volumes have appeared thus far: Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970–2000 (Oxford, 2001; rev. ed. 2008) and Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment, with a contribution by Jan T. Gross (Modern Library, 2009). The third volume will be on the Soviet Union in the third world and Afghanistan. Kotkin’s publications and public lectures also often focus on Communist China.

Kotkin has participated in numerous events of the National Intelligence Council, among other government bodies, and is a consultant in geopolitical risk to Conexus Financial and Mizuho Americas. He served as the lead book reviewer for the New York Times Sunday Business Section for a number of years and continues to write reviews and essays for Foreign Affairs, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Wall Street Journal, among other venues. He has been an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow.

Julia Tao Wei is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2022-23. Wei has worked in the financial industry for over 20 years and has vast experiences across a variety of financial products including commercial banking business, corporate finance, cross-border M&A, derivative products, private equity and asset management.  Since 2015, as a founding partner, Wei has led the Discovery Capital (Hong Kong) team focusing on non-performing asset investments and maintained partnership of the family office of Winsome Group (Hong Kong). Her previous experience included many years at investment banks such as Mizuho Bank, UBS, BNP Paribas and BOCGI. We is an active social activist, member of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, and advisor of think tanks, including D&C Think Tank. She received her bachelor's degree of economics from Hangzhou Dianzi University and studied in an MBA program at Waseda University in Tokyo. She is fluent in Mandarin, English and Japanese.

Jitukrushna Swain is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2022-23. Swain has over thirteen years of experience in business development, core scientific research and project management of pharmaceutical products and has been with Reliance Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., India since 2015. Currently, he is designated as Senior Manager in the Corporate Development team. His current responsibilities include business development for international regulated market (including out-licensing deals for Finished Dose Formulations and client management); cross-functional coordination for product registration and market launch; portfolio management; sales and distribution network development for pharmaceutical products; and supporting the international clients by query response to techno-commercial requirements. Swain received his master's degree in bio-technology with specialization in industrial microbiology and fermentation technology from Sambualpur University, India in 2009.

Makoto Shishido is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2022-23 and 2023-24. Shishido served various positions at the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF), Cabinet Secretariat and Cabinet Office (CAO) and assumed several tasks related to Japanese economic policy during his career. Before joining Shorenstein APARC, Shishido served as the Deputy Director for Basic Principles on Fiscal management at CAO since 2021 where he was responsible for "Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform". Prior to that, Shishido was a Section Chief of Growth Strategy, Council Bureau at Cabinet Secretariat from 2020 to 2021. He worked on economic growth strategy of Japanese government and dealt with many questions from Diet members for "Go To Campaign", which is one of the demand stimulation measures for industry affected by COVID-19. Shishido earned his Bachelor of Law from Kyoto University in 2012 and his Master of Public Policy from Kyoto University in 2015.

Lt. Col. Kazunobu Sakuma is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2022-23. Sakuma has over 25 years of experience in the Japan Air Self Defense Force (Koku-Jieitai) with a background in strategy education and research, defense policy and planning and aircraft maintenance. Additionally, he served as associate professor at the National Defense Academy of Japan and U.N. peacekeeper of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force. He received his PhD in security studies at the Graduate School of Security Studies, National Defense Academy of Japan. His research interest covers organizational behavior, U.S.-Japan defense relationship, and technology, society and warfare.

Daisuke Saginoue is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2022-23. Saginoue has over 20 years of experiences with the Development Bank of Japan focusing mainly on investment activities and M&A advisory services in Japan and Vietnam. He earned his Bachelor degree at Waseda University and his Master degree at Osaka University. 

Hideyuki Koshimoto is a global affiliate visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2022-23. Koshimoto joined the Patent Office in 2007 and has worked as a patent examiner, handling patent applications mainly in the field of chemistry. In 2012, he was in charge of Trial and Appeal affairs, especially with respect to the international conference with foreign governments about the Trial and Appeal system. In 2016, he transferred to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and was in charge of measures against counterfeit products particularly in dealing with the training of government officials in the developing countries. In 2019, he was also in charge of the information systems affairs with a focus on the system development for patent examiners.