Indo-Pacific Program

Susanna Numminen is a Berlin-based program assistant on GMF’s Indo-Pacific program. She is actively involved in several projects of the program including the India Trilateral Forum.

Numminen previously worked as a security specialist in the Finnish prime minister’s office, conducting comprehensive security analyses, developing security preparedness for standard and disruptive conditions, and serving as the liaison for equality and equity. She was also a global market insight associate at Atheneum Partners, an expert network based in Germany that connects clients with industry experts to exchange specialized knowledge. In that position, she coordinated consultations in public policy, energy, and financial markets, among other fields.

Numminen holds a master’s degree in politics and organizations and a bachelor’s degree in political science, with minors in gender studies and social psychology, from the University of Helsinki. She speaks fluent Finnish and English, and has a good command of German and Swedish.

Sayuri Romei is a Washington, DC-based senior fellow in GMF’s Indo-Pacific program. She leads work on Japan and heads the Japan Trilateral Forum. Her research focuses on US-Japan relations and security issues in the Indo-Pacific.

Romei was previously an associate director of programs at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, where she was responsible for the Next Generation of US-Japan Nuclear Experts program and the Mansfield Forum on Energy and Climate Change, among other initiatives. She was also a Stanton nuclear security fellow at the RAND Corporation, a public policy fellow at the Wilson Center, the fellow for security and foreign affairs at Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, and a MacArthur nuclear security fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Sayuri holds bachelor’s degrees in English language and literature from the University of Sorbonne, and in international relations from the University of Roma La Sapienza, and a master’s degree in international relations and a PhD in political science from Roma Tre University. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Kyodo News, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and The Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, among other media outlets. She has appeared on BBC World News, the BBC World Service, and the PBS NewsHour to comment on security issues in East Asia. She speaks Italian, French, and Japanese, and is studying Korean.