Security + Geopolitics

Yukimasa Matsuzawa, MD, PhD, is a GMF Indo-Pacific resident fellow focused on the intersection of health security and foreign policy. He also serves as a 2025–2026 Sasakawa Peace Foundation Fellow under the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship Program.

Matsuzawa previously served in key roles in Japan and international health security infrastructure. He was deputy director of the Global Outbreak Intelligence, Capacity Building, and Deployment Coordination Center at the Japan Institute for Health Security, where he led collaborations with partners across the United States, Europe, and Indo-Pacific. He also worked as a medical officer in the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, when he had a one-year secondment to the US Department of Health and Human Services as a medical liaison.

Matsuzawa holds a PhD from the University of Tokyo and has expertise in pandemic influenza and biosecurity. He conducts research at Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies on strategies against AI-driven biological threats. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on virology and health security.

Dr. Daniel Kliman is GMF’s senior vice president for global power shifts. He oversees a new GMF pillar on adapting the transatlantic partnership to a shifting global landscape and serves as a member of the GMF executive team.

Dr. Kliman’s prior experience spans the US government, US military, think tanks, and the private sector. In his civilian career, he led teams at the US Department of State and the Center for a New American Security. He also worked for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and at a venture-backed, defense and aerospace startup. Early in his career, he spent three years at GMF, where he spearheaded Asia-related programming and conducted pioneering research on global swing states.

Since 2015, Dr. Kliman has served as an officer in the US Navy Reserve, deploying to US Navy Central Command in 2020, and activating in 2025 to advance the Defense Innovation Unit’s global partnerships.

Through publications, US congressional testimony, and civilian government service under the current and previous three US presidential administrations, Dr. Kliman has helped to sharpen Washington’s focus on strategic competition with China. His work has shaped how the United States has adapted its alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and beyond, and informed American efforts to develop new policy tools to compete with China across all domains.

Dr. Kliman is the author of numerous think tank reports and op-eds and has published two books, “Fateful Transitions: How Democracies Manage Rising Powers, From the Eve of World War I to China’s Ascendance” and “Japan’s Security Strategy in the Post-9/11 World: Embracing a New Realpolitik”. He holds a PhD in politics from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University.