Kristin Vekasi

Kristin Vekasi is the Mansfield Chair of Japan and Indo-Pacific Affairs at the University of Montana. Her research focuses on trade and investment strategies in changing geopolitical environments, and the political risk management of supply chains. She specializes in Northeast Asia, and has spent years conducting research in China, Japan, and South Korea. Her book Risk Management Strategies of Japanese Companies in China (Routledge 2019) explores how Japanese multinational corporations mitigate political risk in China. Her current research examines how Japan, China, and the United States cooperate and compete to manage complex supply chains, focusing on raw materials and industries essential for the transition to green energy.

Vekasi received her PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prior to joining the faculty at University of Montana, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Maine, taught at New College of Florida, was a visiting Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo and a Fulbright Fellow at Tohoku University. She is a member of the Mansfield Foundation’s US-Japan Network for the Future, and a 2019 National Asia Research Program Fellow with the National Bureau of Asian Research where she is also a nonresident fellow. In 2021-2022, she was an academic associate at the Harvard University US-Japan Program.