Mie Oba

Mie Oba

Professor, Kanagawa University

Dr. Mie Oba is a professor at Kanagawa University. She obtained her M.A and Ph.D in Advanced Social and International Studies from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo. Her major is International Relations and the politics in East Asia and Asia-Pacific. She specialises in the development of regionalism in this region as well as theories of regional integration and regionalism. She has written several articles and books, including “Further development of Asian regionalism: institutional hedging in an uncertain era”, in the Journal of Contemporary East Asian Studies, 2019.  She received The 21st Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Prize by the Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Foundation (2005), the 6th Okita Commemorative Award for Policy Research by the National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA)(2005), and the 11th Nakasone Yasuhiro Incentive Award (2015) .

A Ukrainian serviceman stands at a check point in the vilage of Velyka Dymerka east of Kyiv, on 9 March 2022. (Aris Messinis/AFP)

Why ASEAN must stand firm against Russia's invasion of Ukraine

At the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly, 141 out of 193 countries voted in favour of condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including eight ASEAN countries. In the main, this demonstrates ASEAN member countries' belief in international law and the principles of upholding sovereignty and territorial integrity. As for China, its support for Russia seems to go against its own concerns of separatist movements in Xinjiang and the Taiwan issue. It is clear that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not "someone else's affair". If the delicate East Asian order is to be preserved, ASEAN and East Asian countries need to be firm in their stand against Russia.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (left, with mic) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 ASEAN summit. (SPH)

Post-Abe: Japan-ASEAN partnership crucial in navigating great power rivalry

With Shinzō Abe's imminent departure from office, Japanese academic Mie Oba looks back at Japan-ASEAN diplomacy under his charge, and at the expansion of defence cooperation between Japan and certain Southeast Asian countries. She says Japanese partnership with ASEAN has become more important, as Japan and ASEAN continue to navigate the escalating rivalry between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region.
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) pose for a group photo during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat in Nha Trang on January 17, 2020. ASEAN has to find a way to navigate the US-China trade war. (Nhac Nguyen/AFP)

ASEAN 2020: How to swim in the choppy waters of the US-China conflict

Mie Oba, Professor, Tokyo University of Science, suggests that rather than just being the grass that suffers when elephants fight, ASEAN’s approach and response to moves by the US and China will determine its future.