Senior Fellows
MORI Satoru

Areas of focus: Contemporary U.S. foreign/defense policy with a focus on U.S. strategy in Asia, U.S. defense innovation and its implications for U.S. allies, and the history of U.S. defense strategy.
Satoru Mori is the professor of contemporary international politics at the Faculty of Law, Keio University. Professor Mori is a former Japanese Foreign Ministry official and holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo, LL.M. degrees from Columbia University Law School and Kyoto University, and a LL.B. degree from Kyoto University. He was appointed as associate professor at the Faculty of Law of Hosei University in 2008 and as professor in 2010. During his sabbatical leave, he was a visiting researcher at Princeton University (2014-2015) and George Washington University (2013-2015). He assumed his current position in April 2022.
His book on U.S. diplomatic history The Vietnam War and Alliance Diplomacy (in Japanese) published from the University of Tokyo Press in 2009 was awarded the 15th Hiroshi Shimizu Prize for Distinguished Academic Work from the Japanese Association of American Studies. English publications include “The Case for Japan Acquiring Counterstrike Capabilities: Limited Offensive Operations for a Defensive Strategy,” (co-authored with Shinichi Kitaoka) in Scott Harold et al., Japan’s Possible Acquisition of Long-Range Land Attack Missiles and the Implications for the U.S.-Japan Alliance, (RAND Corporation, 2022) 7-25, “U.S. Technological Competition with China,” Asia Pacific Review 26:1 (2019) 77-120, and "The Promotion of Rules-based Order and the Japan-U.S. Alliance" in Michael J. Green ed., Ironclad: Forging a New Future for America's Alliances (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) 97-112. He is also a recipient of the Nakasone Yasuhiro Incentive Award.