Axel Berkofsky is an associate professor at the University of Pavia and a senior fellow and senior adviser at the Asia Centre of the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) in Milan. He is also chair of the selection committee and vice-chair of the executive committee of the Canon Foundation in Europe, a member of the executive committee of the European Japan Advanced Research Network (EJARN) in Stockholm, and a research affiliate of the European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics. Previously, he was a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre (EPC) and a research fellow at the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS), both in Brussels. His research focuses on security in East Asia and relations between Europe and Asia.