The Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS), in collaboration with the Taiwan Ocean Affairs Council, is pleased to announce the third cohort of the Maritime GENIE (Governance Expanded Network for Innovation and Education) program. This dynamic group of professionals brings diverse perspectives and fresh ideas to strengthen maritime governance at the national, regional, and global levels, with a particular focus on Taiwan’s maritime policies, sustainability efforts, and regional contributions.
Over the course of the program, participants will engage in a series of online and in-person activities designed to strengthen their skills in policy development, leadership, and innovation. A key highlight of the program is the in-person engagement in Taiwan, including participation in the Taiwan International Ocean Forum, where participants will take part in site visits and collaborative exchanges. Upon completion of the program, each participant will produce a policy-oriented output aimed at informing policymakers and key maritime stakeholders.
Let’s meet the cohort:
Indigo Atkinson (Australia)
Indigo is a researcher and emerging policy professional specialising in Indo-Pacific geopolitics, with a focus on maritime security dynamics of the South China Sea. Her forthcoming thesis details the role of state identity formation on the Chinese deep water fishing vessels within the South China Sea. Her career began on commercial fishing boats in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and she retains a particular interest in transboundary fisheries and their role in regional cooperation and security beyond fisheries. In parallel, Indigo has held the roles of COO and CEO of the non-profit Global Voices. In these roles, she trains outstanding young Australians in policy and diplomacy through the Global Voices flagship policy fellowship. Global Voices sends young Australians to international multilateral fora such as, GLOBSEC, the climate COPs, the Y20 and the UNGA 6th committee. This experience has underscored both her belief in international cooperation and the necessity to upskill and uplift civil society groups in policy-making to retain their buy-in of multilateral decision making in international relations.
Jack Butcher (Australia)
Dr. Jack Butcher is an adjunct lecturer in the School of Society and Culture at Adelaide University in Australia and an inaugural Japan-Australia Dialogue and Exchange (JADE) fellow with the Japan Foundation and the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Jack's main area of interest is the international relations of East Asia and the Western Pacific, where he researches the role of strategic partnerships, alliances, minilaterals and multilateral institutions in the region. Jack holds a Master of international Security and Bachelor of International Studies with a minor in Chinese. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker and aims to cultivate deeper expertise in maritime security and governance in the Indo-Pacific through the Taiwan-Maritime GENIE Program. politics.
Benjamin Blandin (France)
Dr. Benjamin Blandin is a French researcher based in Taipei, currently affiliated with the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR). Prior to his academic career, he worked as a Senior Consultant in strategy and innovation for leading firms including Accenture, Deloitte, and Capgemini, and subsequently in industry at Airbus Defence and Space. Dr. Blandin holds two Master’s degrees in geostrategy and geopolitics from Paris University, as well as a PhD in geopolitics from the Catholic University of Paris. He has also completed advanced training in maritime security and maritime strategy at the French Military Academy (IHEDN and CESM), and in international maritime law, with distinction, at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg. His research focuses on China’s asymmetric warfare along the First Island Chain, for which he has developed original analytical frameworks. His work has been presented at academic, governmental, and military institutions at both regional and international levels, and published in over thirty articles and forty citations in the past three years.
Pratnashree Basu (India)
Pratnashree Basu is an Associate Fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation. She covers geostrategic developments in the Indo-Pacific, with a focus on Japan’s role in the region. Her work also includes maritime geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific, with a particular emphasis on the East and South China Seas. She completed her doctoral degree in International Relations from Jadavpur University. She is a Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Partnership Program (JFIPP Research Fellow 2024); a Sasakawa Peace Foundation and German Marshall Fund for the US Young Strategists Forum Fellow (2025); a Fellow of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies (2021 and 2023); and a US Department of State IVLP Fellow (2017).
With a decade of policy research experience, her research has been published in books, monographs, and peer-reviewed journals. Besides her regular research at ORF, she also contributes to online and print platforms like The Hindu Business Line, The Lowy Interpreter, The Hindu, 9DashLine, The Diplomat, and East Asia Forum, among others.
Amar Maruf (Indonesia)
Amar Maruf is an Indonesian lecturer, researcher, and community development practitioner with around twenty years of experience in sustainable development, coastal and small-island governance. He is a lecturer at the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at Halu Oleo University and a researcher at the UHO-BRIN Research Collaboration Center for Sama-Bajau Community Development. His work focuses on maritime communities, marine ecosystem management, climate change adaptation, and participatory approaches that connect research, policy, and community action. Amar has led and supported initiatives in sustainable fisheries, mangrove conservation, environmental education, and regenerative entrepreneurship in Southeast Sulawesi. He holds a PhD in Community Development from Universiti Putra Malaysia, an MSc in Environmental Studies from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and a BSc in Aquatic Resource Management from Halu Oleo University. His recent publications examine Sama-Bajau fishers, social resilience, and climate change in Indonesian island and coastal settings.
Daisuke Kageyama (Japan)
Daisuke Kageyama is a civil servant at Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), specializing in disaster resilience and sustainability. He currently serves as a Planning Officer for sediment disaster prevention projects at the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau of MLIT. With nine years of government experience, he integrates civil engineering, data analysis, and policy expertise to advance disaster risk reduction. His previous roles include positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI), and the Hyogo Prefectural Government. Daisuke is an emerging leader committed to strengthening resilience across the Indo-Pacific. In 2024–2025, he visited Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Fiji to discuss disaster risk reduction strategies as part of the Indo-Pacific Cooperation Network (IPCN), a cross-national initiative led by the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) and the Japan Foundation (JF). Daisuke holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Forest Science from Hokkaido University.
Corinne Casha (Malta)
Dr. Corinne Casha was born on 25 November 1979. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Law and International Relations (B.A) and a Doctorate in Law (LLD) at the University of Malta in 2002. Dr. Casha joined the diplomatic corps within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malta in June 2002, and has to-date served on four diplomatic postings - London (as First Secretary from June 2005 to December 2005), Brussels (as RELEX Counsellor from September 2006 to September 2009), Rome (as First Secretary and Deputy Head of Mission from April 2011 to June 2015) and Brussels (as Deputy EU Presidency Coordinator from March 2016 to August 2017). Dr. Casha was appointed
Deputy Director (Global Issues) at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in August 2020, a position she held until December 2025. As Deputy Director, Dr. Casha was responsible for the cyber diplomacy portfolio within the Ministry. She was a member of the National Cyber Security Steering Committee and assisted in the drafting of the National Cyber Security Strategy, launched in 2022. Dr. Casha was also responsible for the ocean and maritime governance portfolio. Through Dr. Casha’s efforts, Malta signed and ratified the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, and in 2024 joined 31 other countries in calling for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, advocating for a pause until a robust regulatory framework is established to protect the marine environment. In
January 2026, Dr. Casha was assigned as First Counsellor to the Embassy of Malta in Tokyo and is the first Maltese female diplomat to serve in Japan. Dr. Casha is also a regular speaker and moderator at events which have included the Paris Cyber Summit, Cyber Week Tel Aviv and the IGF Forum in Riyadh.
Janina Clare Tan (Philippines)
Janina Clare Tan is a graduate student in Asia-Pacific Studies at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. She previously worked as a consular and protocol officer at the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, where she was involved in diplomatic communication, stakeholder coordination, and cross-border engagement. In 2015, she was part of the team that won the Geneva Challenge through a co-authored policy paper on return migration. She is currently consulting as a cross-cultural specialist on various projects, including an Indigenous maritime exchange initiative involving Taiwan and the Philippines. Her academic and professional interests include cross-cultural collaboration, transnational knowledge exchange, intercultural communication, migration, and regional cooperation.
Ja Ian Chong (Singapore)
Chong Ja Ian is an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore and a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, Carnegie’s East Asia-based research center on contemporary China, where he examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 2008 and previously taught at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research covers the intersection of international and domestic politics, with a focus on the externalities of major power competition, nationalism, regional order, security, contentious politics, and state formation. He also works on U.S.-China relations, security and order in Northeast and Southeast Asia, cross-strait relations, and Taiwan’s politics. He was a 2019-20 Harvard-Yenching Visiting Scholar, 2013 Taiwan Fellow, 2012-13 East-West Center Asia Fellow, and a 2008-9 Princeton-Harvard China and the World Fellow. Chong’s current research examines how non-leading state behavior collectively intensifies major power rivalries, paying particular attention to the U.S.-China relationship. He has concurrent projects investigating how states react to sanctions on third parties by trade partners, and the characteristics of foreign influence operations. Chong is the author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Indonesia, Thailand, 1893-1952 (Cambridge, 2012), and a recipient of the 2013 International Security Studies Section Book Award from the International Studies Association. He has published in the China Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, Security Studies, and Pacific Affairs, among other outlets.
Alex Lew Wen Jie (Singapore)
Alex Lew is a policy researcher and climate and governance practitioner specialising in maritime governance, environmental policy, and regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. He has worked across international organisations and initiatives, including the ASEAN Foundation, Asia-Europe Foundation, and regional youth and policy platforms. He currently works in strategy and partnerships in the environmental sector, focusing on sustainability, knowledge access, and emerging carbon markets. His broader work spans climate justice, digital governance, and cross-border policy challenges. Alex’s research focuses on maritime governance under gray-zone conditions, with particular interest in energy security, shipping resilience, and Taiwan’s role in regional ocean governance. He has participated in multiple international fellowships and policy forums across the Asia-Pacific. He holds a BA (Hons) in History and Archaeology from SOAS, University of London, and brings an interdisciplinary approach bridging policy, research, and practice.
James Jae B Park (South Korea)
James Park, a Captain (S/R) of the Republic of Korea Army, is a senior fellow at the Indo-Pacific Studies Center of the Pacific Forum, at the University of Vienna's European Center for North Korean Studies, and at the West Point Modern Warfare Institute’s Irregular Warfare Initiative. Captain Park also holds rising scholar positions in the Atlantic Council’s KOR-US-AUS trilateral initiative, the Pacific Forum, and the Royal United Service Institute. His main research interests include the ROK-U.S. alliance, Dark/Shadow Fleet, and Maritime Domain Awareness.
Patrick Zoll (Switzerland)
Patrick Zoll is a geopolitics correspondent covering the Indo-Pacific for the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He regularly reports on maritime issues across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, including assignments aboard naval and government vessels.
He is an alumnus of the Yeosu Academy (2023) and frequently participates in regional maritime security forums, such as the Manila Dialogue on the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean Defence & Security Conference. He is also a non-resident research fellow at the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy (KIMS), based in Taipei.
Hillary Briffa (United Kingdom)
Dr. Hillary Briffa is a Senior Lecturer in National Security Studies and Assistant Director of the Centre for Defence Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She serves on the editorial board of the open-access, peer-reviewed Small States and Territories journal and is currently part of a three-year grant with Georgetown University Qatar studying the maritime sector and resilience-building. Internationally, Hillary is Academic Chair for the Knowledge Hub on Climate for Circle-U, an alliance of nine research-intensive universities. Her co-authored monograph, Convergence: Climate Change and Geopolitical Futures, will be published in July. After running peacebuilding projects in Eastern and Central Europe, she became a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s inaugural Emerging Young Leaders award. Today, she sits on the board of the London Defence Conference and regularly consults on foreign policy and defence issues for the British government and others internationally, ranging from Estonia to Fiji. Her academic interests in maritime security focus on the maritime interests of small states, climate resilience, and the role of UNCLOS in shaping order at sea.
William Yale (United States)
William Yale is a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) in the U.S. Navy currently serving as Naval Expeditionary Analyst at Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC), Programs and Resources (P&R) Department. Previously, he spent six years in Japan serving on an amphibious ship, destroyer, and cruiser in both Sasebo and Yokosuka. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) with an MA in Strategic Studies and International Economics, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC) with a Certificate in Chinese and American Studies, and Trinity College with a BA in Public Policy & Law. He also studied Mandarin Chinese for a year in Beijing at Beijing Foreign Studies University and Minzu University of China.
Jordan Foley (United States)
Jordan Foley is the Co-Founder & CEO of TrueWake, a maritime technology company building the evidence infrastructure for modern shipping. TrueWake develops systems that capture, synchronize, and preserve vessel data to enable reliable incident reconstruction, accountability, and risk assessment—particularly as autonomy and contested maritime operations reshape the industry. In his military role, Foley serves as an admiralty attorney advising senior US Navy leadership on maritime, international, and operational law, managing complex litigation in coordination with the US Government. A former submarine officer and space operations liaison, he has operated across the Indo-Pacific, the Pentagon, and Capitol Hill, including as a legislative fellow to Senator Mazie Hirono on the Senate Armed Services Committee. His work sits at the intersection of law, technology, and strategy, with a focus on maritime autonomy, evidentiary integrity, and the use of legal frameworks in strategic competition. He holds degrees from the U.S. Naval Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown Law, and the US Naval War College.
Brian Kerg (United States)
Brian Kerg is a prior enlisted infantryman, communications officer, and Marine Corps operational planner. He has been deployed across the Western Pacific and previously served as the G-5 Director of Plans for III Marine Expeditionary Force. He is a nonresident fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, the managing editor for the Center for International Maritime Security, a board member for the Military Writers Guild, and a LTG (Ret) James Dubik Writing Fellow. As a Commandant of the Marine Corps PhD Strategist Fellow, he will matriculate at the University of Notre Dame to begin doctoral studies in the graduate school’s Department of Political Science (International Relations subfield), where his dissertation will focus on alliances, partnerships, and security mechanisms across East Asia.
Hong Kong To Nguyen (Vietnam)
Hong Kong To Nguyen is a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Social Research, Phenikaa University, and chief editor at Toan Viet Limited Company in Hanoi. She graduated from Columbia University in 2012 with a major in Philosophy and minor in Political Science. She earned both her MSc. and PhD in Asia Pacific Studies from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (MEXT Scholar), where her dissertation examined maritime law enforcement and unplanned encounters in the South China Sea in the 2010-2022 period. Her research interests span Vietnam foreign relations, maritime security, South China Sea disputes, Indo-Pacific regional cooperation, and the societal impacts of artificial intelligence. She has contributed to publishing over 30 articles in the past five years in journals including Marine Policy, Asia Policy, The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, and AI & Society, besides occasional contributions to ISEAS Perspective and The Diplomat. She was a non-resident WSD-Handa fellow at the Pacific Forum in 2022. In her current research, she translates qualitative social science data into quantitative metrics using Python and R, providing empirical grounding for a variety of policy questions. Beyond her geopolitics specialization, she examines dual-use applications of AI in security and defense, and cultural-philosophical dimensions of emerging technologies.
YCAPS is proud to work in collaboration with the Taiwan Ocean Affairs Council to empower future leaders with the Maritime Genie Program. Media inquiries can be directed to Ivy Ganadillo (ivy.ganadillo@ycaps.org).