Ocean Nations: The 2nd Annual Indo-Pacific Islands Dialogue

Join us for our second year as we continue to highlight voices from island nations and examine the impact of issues like climate change, maritime security, and resilient infrastructure on the geopolitical landscape in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Key leaders from island nations, global scholars, and high-level security experts will gather to discuss how nations pursue their interests and respond to resulting security challenges in today’s increasingly complex world.

Agenda

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Monday, September 19, 2022

Featuring

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  Abdulla Shahid

  Abdulla Shahid is a seasoned diplomat with a long and distinguished career serving in both the government and legislature of Maldives and is currently serving as the foreign minister of Maldives for the second time. In 2021, he was elected as the president of the seventy-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly. As a strong advocate for gender equality, he is credited with achieving gender parity among the country’s diplomatic heads of mission for the first time, as well as in the country’s foreign service.
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  Richard J. Randriamandrato

  Richard J. Randriamandrato is the minister of foreign affairs of Madagascar. He has over twenty-five years of experience in international development, politics, and cooperation, serving as an international development advisor for the United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
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  Tarcisius Kabutaulaka

  Tarcisius Kabutaulaka is an associate professor in the Department of Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. His research and publications focus on land and economic development, geopolitics, regionalism, governance, natural resources and economic development, conflicts, post-conflict rehabilitation/peacebuilding, international intervention, and political developments in Oceania.
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  Satyendra Prasad

  Satyendra Prasad is Fiji’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York and Fiji’s nonresident high commissioner to Canada. Ambassador Prasad served as Fiji’s representative as chair of the Pacific Islands Forum (from July 2021–August 2022) and advised Pacific governments on climate and ocean issues both within UN processes and in other multilateral settings such as the World Bank and the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.
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  Nilanthi Samaranayake

  Nilanthi Samaranayake is director of the Strategy and Policy Analysis Program at CNA. Samaranayake studies small states in international affairs, U.S. alliances and partnerships, and Indian Ocean regional security. Her analysis has been published in Newsweek, East Asia Forum, Defense One, Lawfare, and Asian Security, among other outlets.
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  Angelique Pouponneau

  Angelique Pouponneau is a policy advisor on ocean and climate matters to the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. She serves on the advisor board of the UN Ocean Decade and as an alternate board member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Adaption Fund. She was previously the chief executive officer of the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust.
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  Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum

  Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum took office as president of the East-West Center in January 2022. Vares-Lum brings executive leadership and planning experience spanning the past several decades, culminating in five years serving with and advising the most senior officials at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, where she cultivated and maintained key relationships with nations throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Vares-Lum serves on the board of the American Red Cross Pacific Islands Region, Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, and the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research.
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  Atsushi Sunami

  Atsushi Sunami is the president of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He is also director of the SciREX Center and executive advisor to the president at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and guest professor at the Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation at Waseda University.
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  Yōko Kamikawa

  Yōko Kamikawa is a Japanese politician serving as a member of the House of Representatives. She previously served as Japan’s minister of justice and minister of state for gender equality and social affairs in the cabinets of Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.
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  Evan A. Feigenbaum

  Evan A. Feigenbaum is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research in Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia. He previously served as the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia and a member of the Department of State’s policy planning staff with principal responsibility for East Asia and the Pacific.
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  Zainab Usman

  Zainab Usman is a senior fellow and director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. Her fields of expertise include institutions, economic policy, energy policy, and emerging economies in Africa.
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  Odo Tevi

  Odo Tevi is Vanuatu’s permanent representative to the United Nations and ambassador to the United States. Apart from this role, Ambassador Tevi also served in the executive boards of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund, and United Nations Office for Project Services. From 2003 to 2013, Odo was the governor of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu and Vanuatu’s alternate governor to the International Monetary Fund.
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  Hiroyuki Suzuki

  Hiroyuki Suzuki is chief representative of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation’s (JBIC) Washington office. Since 2020, Suzuki has also been a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Japan Desk. Suzuki has an expertise on international development finance globally, especially in the area of infrastructure, energy, and climate change.
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  Darshana M. Baruah

  Darshana M. Baruah is a fellow with the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where she leads the Indian Ocean Initiative. Her primary research focuses on maritime security in Asia and the role of the Indian Navy in a new security architecture.
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  Siasosi Sovaleni

  Siasosi Sovaleni was sworn in as the 18th Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tonga in November 2021. Siaosi Sovaleni previously served as a member of Tonga’s Legislative Assembly, Minister of Environment and Communication, and Minister of Education and Training.
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  Anna Powles

  Anna Powles is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research and publications focus on geopolitics, security and conflict in the Pacific Islands region, including alliance dynamics, security cooperation and governance, Pacific statecraft practices, and climate security.
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  Hideyuki Shiozawa

  Hideyuki Shiozawa is a senior program officer in the Pacific Island Nations Program at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He has been involved in development cooperation and dialogues in the Pacific Island countries on the ground under the Japanese Government or the SPF since 2003.
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  Kurt M. Campbell

  Kurt M. Campbell serves as Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific on the National Security Council. He previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.