Nanae Baldauff

Dr. Nanae Baldauff is the inaugural Japan-focused Indo-Pacific Research Fellow and a Senior (Non-Resident) Associate Fellow at the NATO Defense College in Italy and is currently serving as an academic mentor at the College. She is also Associate Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) in Belgium, as well as Senior Researcher at Keio Research Institute at SFC, Japan.

She is the author of a monograph Japan’s Defense Engagement in the Indo-Pacific: Deterrence, Strategic Partnership, and Stable Order Building (Springer, 2024). She has published peer-reviewed articles, numerous research papers, and policy briefs, on topics covering space security, defence technology co-operation, and the defence industry. She has given lectures at numerous universities including courses at the NATO Defense College. 

Nanae obtained a Ph.D. in Political Science (Ghent University, Belgium) in 2022. She is a recipient of the Japan Foundation fellowship (2021). Nanae was Research Fellow at the NATO Defense College (2024) as the first Japanese national to be awarded this position. Additionally, she serves on the board of International Security Industry Council Japan. 

Her main research and interests include Japan’s defence policy, the Indo-Pacific security and strategic environment, Japan-Europe defence co-operation (NATO, EU, and individual countries), space security, and defence innovation and industry.