WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Feb. 3, 2009) - The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) announces the expansion of its Asia Program to include two new Fellows, Daniel Twining and Michito Tsuruoka. Previously focused on transatlantic responses to China, GMF's work on the region will begin to encompass Asia as a whole, and particularly the other major powers, India and Japan.

Twining, who will be based in Washington, DC, and Tsuruoka, who will be based in Brussels, bring to GMF both their broad knowledge of pan-Asian issues and their specific expertise on South Asia and Japan, respectively. Working with Transatlantic Fellow Andrew Small, a China specialist, the Fellows will help GMF expand both its Asia-specific programming and its work promoting transatlantic partnership and dialogue with rising Asian powers.

 "GMF recognizes that Asia is a much broader story than China, so we have addressed that with the addition of Dan and Michito," said GMF President Craig Kennedy. "We are confident our new Fellows will help us navigate the complex relationships within Asia and between Asian powers and Europe, the United States, and Canada."

Daniel Twining rejoins GMF as Senior Fellow for Asia from Secretary Condoleezza Rice's Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, where he handled strategic planning and policy formulation for South Asia and regional issues in East Asia. He previously worked for over a decade for Senator John McCain, including as his Foreign Policy Advisor in the United States Senate.  Twining has also been a Transatlantic Fellow and Director of the Foreign Policy Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Fulbright/Oxford Scholar at Oxford University, a legislative aide on Capitol Hill, and a staff member of the United States Trade Representative.  His work on South and East Asia and U.S. foreign policy has been published in newspapers, magazines, and peer-reviewed academic journals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford; Nuffield College, Oxford; and the University of Virginia.

Michito Tsuruoka will be a Resident Fellow on a GMF-Tokyo Foundation fellowship in February and March 2009, part of a new partnership with the Tokyo Foundation. Tsuruoka's work will focus on the relationship between Japan and the transatlantic community and on NATO's relationships in Asia.  He previously worked for three years as a Special Adviser for NATO and European Security issues at the Embassy of Japan in Belgium. Mr. Tsuruoka has also been a member of the NATO Study Group at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and is expected to receive his Ph.D from King's College London. His work on international politics concerning the EU-Japan relationship and NATO has been published in magazines and academic journals in both English and Japanese. Mr. Tsuruoka was awarded prizes for best essays on UN peacekeeping (1995) and Japan-EU relations (2001) by the Japanese Foreign Ministry and Overseas Research Student (ORS) Awards by the UK Government (2002-2005). In addition to King's College London, he was educated at Keio University and Georgetown University.

GMF's Asia Program
The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) believes that the current environment presents a unique window of opportunity to deepen the dialogue and relationship between the transatlantic community and Asia. The United States and Europe are grappling with the implications of the rise of Asia and how this historical trend will impact the spectrum of foreign policy, economic, and domestic challenges facing the transatlantic allies. Policymakers in Washington, Brussels, and national European capitals face problems and issues that can no longer be successfully addressed without involving key Asian powers, as China and India join Japan as Asian states with global reach. Similarly, the major Asian powers have an interest in deepening their connection to the transatlantic world in ways that go beyond traditional close bilateral ties with the United States and Europe. GMF's new Asia program will address these issues, building on GMF's existing work on China, including the biannual Stockholm China Forum.

The German Marshall Fund of the United States is a nonpartisan American public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe. GMF does this by supporting individuals and institutions working on transatlantic issues, by convening leaders to discuss the most pressing transatlantic themes, and by examining ways in which transatlantic cooperation can address a variety of global policy challenges. In addition, GMF supports a number of initiatives to strengthen democracies. Founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany on the 25th anniversary of the Marshall Plan as a permanent memorial to Marshall Plan assistance, GMF maintains a strong presence on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to its headquarters in Washington, DC, GMF has seven offices in Europe: Berlin, Bratislava, Paris, Brussels, Belgrade, Ankara, and Bucharest.