James L. Schoff is associate director of Asia-Pacific studies at IFPA. He has spent nearly twenty years working both in the private sector and the foreign policy research community on Asia-related issues, including five years living in Japan. At IFPA, Jim specializes in East Asian security issues and U.S. alliance relations in the region, with a particular focus on crisis management and non-proliferation cooperation. His recent publications includeNuclear Matters in North Korea: Building a Multilateral Response for Future Stability in Northeast Asia (Potomac Books, 2008) (co-author); Political Fences & Bad Neighbors: North Korea Policy Making in Japan and Implications for the United States (IFPA, 2006); Tools for Trilateralism: Improving U.S.-Japan-Korea Cooperation to Manage Complex Contingencies (Potomac Books, 2005);Crisis Management in Japan and the United States: Creating Opportunities for Cooperation amid Dramatic Change (Potomac Books, 2004) (editor); and Alliance Diversification & the Future of the U.S.-Korean Security Relationship (Potomac Books, 2004) (co-author).

Jim joined IFPA in 2003, after serving as the program officer in charge of policy studies at the United States-Japan Foundation. Before working at the foundation, he managed building projects and developed new business for Bovis Asia Pacific, an international construction and project management firm. Earlier employers included the Brookings Institution, where he assisted with foreign policy studies, and Willkie Farr & Galagher in Washington, D.C., where he worked on international trade law cases involving Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. Jim graduated from Duke University and earned an M.A. in international relations from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He also studied for one year at International Christian University in Tokyo and speaks fluent Japanese.

 

Email: JSchoff@ifpa.org