Experts & Staff

Elli-Katharina Pohlkamp

Visiting Fellow

Areas of expertise

Japanese foreign relations, security and defense policy, Japan’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, EU-Japan relations

Languages

German, English, Greek, French (conversational), Japanese (conversational)

Biography

Dr. Elli-Katharina Pohlkamp is a Visiting Fellow of the Asia Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. She previously worked as a Japan Analyst based in Munich, as a Policy Fellow at the Progressives Zentrum Berlin and as a Japan Fellow at Agora Strategy Group, where she focused on EU-Japan relations and Japanese foreign policy and security in East Asia.

She also was a Research Assistant and a Forum Ebenhausen-Scholar at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP Berlin) and worked at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, as a PhD Scholar.

She holds a PhD from the University of Tübingen, Germany, and has published widely on topics related to Japan’s foreign- and security policy, Sino-Japanese relations and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

What Europe can learn from Japan’s approach to the global south

Russia’s war on Ukraine, the US-China rivalry, and evolving geostrategic dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region have pushed Japan to recalibrate its approach to emerging countries in the global south. European governments, facing challenges to restore a positive image in their engagement with these countries, can draw valuable inspiration from Tokyo’s approach

Tokyo drift: War in Europe and Japan’s shifting strategy

Japan has clearly signalled that it will not stand on the sidelines of global crises. It is now committed to bold diplomacy and the protection of the rules-based international order.

Russia’s escalation in Ukraine: Views from Asia

Asia’s three largest powers all have a stake in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. China hopes to change the global order, Japan aims to resist this effort, and India is eager not to alienate Russia or the West.

Tough dove: Japan’s China policy under its next leader

Japan’s citizens and leaders across the political spectrum are increasingly aware that China poses a security threat. The country’s next prime minister is unlikely to make a dramatic change to the China policy set by his predecessors.

Articles

What Europe can learn from Japan’s approach to the global south

Russia’s war on Ukraine, the US-China rivalry, and evolving geostrategic dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region have pushed Japan to recalibrate its approach to emerging countries in the global south. European governments, facing challenges to restore a positive image in their engagement with these countries, can draw valuable inspiration from Tokyo’s approach

Tokyo drift: War in Europe and Japan’s shifting strategy

Japan has clearly signalled that it will not stand on the sidelines of global crises. It is now committed to bold diplomacy and the protection of the rules-based international order.

Russia’s escalation in Ukraine: Views from Asia

Asia’s three largest powers all have a stake in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. China hopes to change the global order, Japan aims to resist this effort, and India is eager not to alienate Russia or the West.

Tough dove: Japan’s China policy under its next leader

Japan’s citizens and leaders across the political spectrum are increasingly aware that China poses a security threat. The country’s next prime minister is unlikely to make a dramatic change to the China policy set by his predecessors.

After Abe: How Japan’s new prime minister should handle diplomacy

Shinzo Abe’s aggressive and successful diplomacy has helped make Japan a pillar of liberal democracy and a beneficiary of the rules-based international order. His successor has vowed to protect these interests.

Podcasts

Events

In the media