Edward Rhys Jones

Area Studies (2024 cohort)

In my current research, I examine the development and implementation of Japan’s science, technology, and innovation (STI) diplomacy. Through a series of case studies, I explore how Japan mobilises scientific and technical expertise both to tackle pressing global challenges and to advance national interests. I am therefore interested in the question of how technologically advanced states strategically leverage specialised knowledge for both cooperative and competitive purposes.

Previously, my MPhil thesis explored Japan’s observer membership of the Arctic Council as a lens into its evolving Arctic policy. Through interviews with key stakeholders, I traced the interpersonal and institutional networks shaping Japan’s Arctic engagement and assessed the wider significance of its observer status.

Beyond my core research, I have broader interests in geopolitics and state legitimation in the Arctic and Antarctic; ‘unconventional’ forms of state power, including soft power; state media and public diplomacy; and the Polar, East Asian, and former Soviet Central and Western Asian regions more generally.

In 2024, I graduated with an MPhil in Global and Area Studies (distinction) from St Antony’s College, Oxford, and I also hold a BA in History. I was a visiting researcher at Hokkaido University in the summer of 2023. I have previously worked at the secretariat of Arctic Circle in Reykjavik, Iceland, and as a research assistant at the Oxford Internet Institute.