Washington, D.C. — The Center for American Progress announced today that Tobias S. Harris is joining the organization’s National Security and International Policy team as a senior fellow. At CAP, Harris will manage the team’s coverage of East Asia issues, including U.S. relations with China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and Taiwan.
Harris is a leading expert and writer on U.S.-Asia policy who has been widely quoted in national and international publications and has appeared as a regular guest on television and radio programs. Since 2013, he has been a senior vice president at Teneo Intelligence, the political risk division of Teneo, a leading CEO advisory firm.
“We are thrilled to welcome Tobias to the CAP team,” said Gordon Gray, chief operating officer at CAP. “His wide-ranging experience and insights into Asia politics and economic policy will help guide CAP’s foreign policy strategy in East Asia.”
Harris worked on the staff of a Japanese legislator from 2006 to 2007 and later ran the popular blog “Observing Japan.” He has contributed to The Wall Street Journal Asia and Far Eastern Economic Review and conducted graduate research at MIT and the University of Tokyo. Harris was the Economy, Trade, and Business Fellow at Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on U.S.-Japan relations, from 2014 to 2020.
His first book, The Iconoclast: Shinzo Abe and the New Japan—the first English-language biography of Japan’s longest-serving prime minister—was published in 2020.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to work with CAP’s stellar national security team to articulate a progressive vision for U.S. policy toward a strategically vital region,” Harris said.
Harris received his bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and holds a Master of Philosophy degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge. He conducted graduate research at MIT and was a Fulbright scholar at the Institute for Social Science at the University of Tokyo from 2011 to 2012. His personal Twitter handle is @observingjapan.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected] or 202-478-6327.