About Us
Helping advance a more open, secure and rules-based maritime order in Asia.
About Asia Maritime Index
Water is the dominant geographic feature in Asia, covering nearly 60 percent of its area. From the South China Sea to the Malacca Strait, and from the Sea of Japan to the Gulf of Thailand, the maritime realm is central to the economic, political and security affairs of the region. Asia Maritime Index is a project of Tokyo International University’s Maritime Security Lab and funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) / 日本学術振興会.
Led by its Principal Investigator, Prof. Jeffrey Ordaniel, the initiative aims to help advance an open, secure and rules-based maritime order in Asia through rigorous research on global maritime regimes, regional legal and quasi-legal instruments, and cooperative mechanisms, and related national laws and domestic policies to understand what is driving maritime tensions and highlight actionable and pragmatic policy solutions.
Key Personnel
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jeffrey Ordaniel is Assistant Professor of International Security Studies at Tokyo International University (TIU). Concurrently, he is also non-resident Adjunct Fellow and Director for Maritime Security at the Pacific Forum. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and specializes in the study of offshore territorial and maritime entitlement disputes in Asia. His teaching and research revolve around maritime security and ocean governance, ASEAN regionalism, and broadly, US alliances and engagements in the Indo-Pacific. From 2016 to 2019, he was based in Honolulu and was the holder of the endowed Admiral Joe Vasey Fellowship at the Pacific Forum.
Since 2019, Dr. Ordaniel has been convening the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Expert Working Group, an informal network of select experts and scholars from Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia and North America, with the aim of generating sound, pragmatic and actionable policy prescriptions for the region. His current research on maritime security in Asia is funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), 2020-2022. He is author of the forthcoming Routledge book, Coping with ‘China Threat’—The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia in the South China Sea, scheduled for release in 2022
Research Associate and Coordinator
Nguyen Xuan Nhat Minh is a senior student at Tokyo International University majoring in International Relations. He serves as research associate and coordinator for Asia Maritime Index. Minh’s research interests include the South China Sea and Vietnam’s foreign policy.
Research Associate and Coordinator
Tran Nguyen Quan is a senior student at Tokyo International University majoring in International Relations. He serves as a research associate for Asia Maritime Index. Quan’s research interests include the South China Sea, U.S. foreign policy in Southeast Asia, and Vietnam’s foreign policy.
Partners and Sponsors
Asia Maritime Index is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS / 日本学術振興会).
JSPS is Japan’s leading funding agency and is largely funded through annual subsidies from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Established in 1932, JSPS promotes the advancement of academic research in all disciplines from social sciences and humanities to natural sciences and engineering. Additionally, JSPS administers a number of bilateral and multilateral programmes for scientific cooperation and exchange under memorandums of understanding concluded with its various counterpart foreign academic institutions around the world.
JSPS main functions are:
・ Creating diverse world level knowledge
・ Building robust international cooperative networks
・ Fostering the next generation while enhancing the education and research functions of universities, and
・ Building evidence-based science-promotion systems and strengthening linkage with society
Disclaimers
An index database of global and regional maritime regimes, multilateral/bilateral agreements, and national/domestic legal instruments and policies is made available to students, researchers and scholars for their private academic and policy research activities. While the team is committed to delivering a high quality copy of publicly available and unclassified official documents and to verify that the data contained therein have been selected on the basis of sound scientific judgement, Asia Maritime Index makes no warranties whatsoever and shall not be liable for any damage that may result from errors or omissions in the database. The team behind Asia Maritime Index is not responsible for contents copied or reposted from other outlets. We regret that we cannot answer substantive reference inquiries.
Statements made and views expressed in curated articles and research papers are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their respective organizations and affiliations. The positions of Asia Maritime Index do not necessarily reflect the opinions of JSPS and other partners.