EVENT POSTPONED: The U.S.-Japan Alliance in A Changing World Order

Public Event: The U.S.-Japan Alliance in a Changing World Order
February 23 | 6:30 PM ET

*This event was postponed due to hazardous weather conditions. Please check our website for any updates.

As strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific intensifies, the U.S.-Japan alliance stands at a pivotal juncture. It serves as an anchor not only for bilateral cooperation but also for broader regional peace, stability, and economic security. While the Indo-Pacific remains strategically vital, the recent 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy framing suggests a more transactional alliance footing, with a renewed call for Japan and other partners to assume greater responsibility for regional deterrence and economic resilience. This recalibration presents both risks and opportunities for the U.S.-Japan partnership, as it navigates great-power competition, domestic pressures, and redefined U.S. commitments in the region.

Susan A. THORNTON, Director of NCAFP’s Forum on Asia Pacific Security, is joined by Emma CHANLETT-AVERY of the Asia Society Policy Institute and Ken JIMBO of Keio University to explore how these strategic shifts are reshaping the alliance, from rebalancing force posture and defense industrial cooperation to coordinating economic tools like supply-chain resilience and critical technology policy.  Panelists will assess how changes in U.S. policy impact Japan’s strategy and how both countries can sustain credible deterrence, preserve mutual prosperity, deepen regional integration, and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. Attendees will gain insight into the evolving calculus of alliance burden-sharing, economic security cooperation, and the future architecture of regional security partnerships in a changing world order.

This event is open to NCAFP members and the public. In person only.

The U.S.-Japan Alliance in A Changing World Order
Monday, February 23, 2026 | 6:30 PM (ET)
Doors Open at 6:00 PM
Program 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Reception 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM

The Cosmopolitan Club
122 E 66th St
New York, NY 10065

VENUE DRESS CODE: Guests must wear proper attire in the Club’s public rooms. This means jackets for men and attire of similar formality for women. Denim is not acceptable. Ties are not required. Collared shirts or turtlenecks with a tailored jacket are acceptable.

Speaker Biographies

Emma CHANLETT-AVERY is Deputy Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Washington, DC office and the Director for Political-Security Affairs. Emma leads Congressional outreach efforts and directs ASPI’s policy engagement on Indo-Pacific alliances. Previous to this post, she served for 20 years as a Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, where she focused on United States relations with Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Thailand, and Singapore, with an emphasis on security issues. In 2023, she served as a Congressional Fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assisting the Chairman with drafting Asia policy legislation and preparing for hearings. Ms. Chanlett-Avery was a Presidential Management Fellow, with rotations in the State Department on the Korea Desk and at the Joint United States Military Advisory Group in Bangkok, Thailand. She also worked in the Office of Policy Planning as a Harold Rosenthal Fellow. She is a member of the Mansfield Foundation United States–Japan Network for the Future and a Mansfield-Luce Asia Network Scholar.  She is a recipient of the Kato Prize, awarded by Washington think tanks for strengthening the United States-Japan alliance. She serves as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Japan-America Societies, Counselor of the Board of Trustees of the Japan-America Society of Washington, DC, and a Trustee of International Student Conferences, Inc. Ms. Chanlett-Avery received an MA in international security policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and her BA in Russian studies from Amherst College.

Ken JIMBO is Professor at the Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University. He served as a Special Advisor to the Minister of Defense, Japan Ministry of Defense (2020) and a Senior Advisor, The National Security Secretariat (2018-20).

His main research fields are in International Security, Japan-US Security Relations, Japanese Foreign and Defense Policy, Multilateral Security in Asia-Pacific, and Regionalism in East Asia. He has been a policy advisor for various Japanese governmental commissions and research groups including for the National Security Secretariat, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His policy writings have appeared in NBR, The RAND Corporation, Stimson Center, Pacific Forum CSIS, Japan Times, Nikkei, Yomiuri, Asahi and Sankei Shimbun.

Susan A. THORNTON is the Director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. She is a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer in Law and Senior Fellow at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center.. Thornton is also the a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. 

Until July 2018, Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State and led East Asia policymaking amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a fast-changing international environment. In previous State Department roles, she worked on U.S. policy toward China, Korea and the former Soviet Union and served in leadership positions at U.S. embassies in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus and China. 

Thornton received her M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and her B.A. from Bowdoin College in Economics and Russian. She serves on several nonprofit boards and speaks Mandarin and Russian.