role: Directors

Mr. Rubinstein’s involvement with defense and aerospace programs in the Asia-Pacific Region is based on lengthy experience as a planner, negotiator, and manager.  During twelve years as a Foreign Service Officer he worked on US-Japan defense and trade issues in the US Embassy, Tokyo (1974-78) and the State Department’s Office of Japanese Affairs (1980-82).

At the Department of Defense Mr. Rubinstein served in the Defense Security Assistance Agency and returned to Tokyo on assignment to the Embassy’s Mutual Defense Assistance Office (1983-86).  In these positions he was responsible for resolution of policy and management matters related to major Japanese acquisition programs as well as joint R&D projects.

After leaving government service Mr. Rubinstein became Director of Policy and Planning in the Washington office of Grumman International, where he focused on government relations, program planning, and joint venture projects.  He has since been employed as a consultant on security policy and defense industrial programs in the Asia-Pacific region and is currently Director of GAR Associates.  Mr. Rubinstein has also served as an advisor to the Department of Defense on Japan programs.

He was educated at the University of Chicago (B.A, 1972), Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (M.A., 1974), and Jochi University, Tokyo. He has written numerous articles on US-Japan security relations, co-authored studies for DoD on armaments cooperation with Japan, and worked on defense acquisition reform proposals for Taiwan.

Mr. Rubinstein is currently an Adjunct Fellow on Japan security matters at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).  As a member of the National Defense Industry Association’s International Committee he contributes to government-industry projects on defense acquisition, foreign military sales, export control, and defense industrial cooperation.

Robert D. Eldridge, Ph.D. serves as an advisor to numerous regional organizations on matters of international security, development, trade, alliance management, disaster response, international education, and human rights, and has been affiliated with several think tanks, including the Asia-Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management, Nakasone Peace Research Institute, Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, Japan International Security Forum, Japan Institute of International Affairs, and Hosei University’s Institute of Okinawan Studies, all in Tokyo, and Okinawa International University’s Institute of Law and Politics.

In October 2017, he was named Policy Advisor and International Exchange Ambassador for Taka Town, Hyogo Prefecture, where he first served as an Assistant English Teacher on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program(me) from 1990-1992. In April 2023, he joined the boards of RITA Gakuen (a high school dedicated to service before self), Animal Refuge Kansai, Japan-Taiwan Friendship Cultural Association, and the Kansai Forum for Japan-U.S. Intellectual Exchange, where he serves as Vice President.

A native of the United States, Dr. Eldridge earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Kobe University in 1999 and taught International Public Policy at Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy from 2001 to 2009, with a focus on international security and bilateral disaster response. He then joined the U.S. Department of Defense as the Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Marine Corps Bases Japan, and served in that capacity until 2015, where he implemented alternative approaches to community relations, public diplomacy, and alliance management based on transparency, dialogue, and proactive outreach.

During that time, he served as the political advisor for the forward-deployed command of U.S. Forces Japan after the March 2011 disaster and launched the Disaster Cooperation Program to build cooperative relations between local communities and the U.S. Marine Corps in preparation for the next major disaster. Upon leaving DOD, he established his own institute and consulting firm, and continues to assist the stricken area as the founder of the Oshima Children’s Fund and Shorai Foundation. In 2021, he co-founded Diplomatic Support Services, Inc., which advises foreign embassies in Japan.

He often speaks at international academic conferences and Track II meetings, as well as a guest commentator on television and radio. He writes regular columns in The Japan Times, Japan Forward, Gendai Business, Sekai Nippo, and several monthly journals. Dr. Eldridge has won numerous awards for his public service and writings, including the prestigious Suntory Academic Award (2003), Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro Award (2012), and Ohira Masayoshi Award (2016).

He is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles and op-eds on U.S.-Japan relations, Okinawa, and Japanese politics, including The Origins of the Bilateral Okinawa Problems: Okinawa in Postwar U.S.-Japan Relations, 1945-1952 (Routledge, 2001), Secret Talks Between Tokyo and Washington: The Memoirs of Miyazawa Kiichi, 1949-1954 (Lexington, 2007, translation), Japanese Public Opinion and the War on Terrorism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, co-edited with Paul Midford), An Inoffensive Rearmament: The Making of the Postwar Japanese Army (Naval Institute Press, 2013, edited memoirs of Colonel Kowalski), Japan’s Backroom Politics: Factions in a Multiparty Age (Lexington, 2013, trans.), The Diplomatic History of Postwar Japan (Routledge, 2010, trans.), The Origins of U.S. Policy in the East China Sea Islands Dispute: Okinawa’s Reversion and the Senkaku Islands (Routledge, 2014), Megaquake (Potomac, 2015, trans.), The Prime Ministers of Postwar Japan: Their Lives and Times (Lexington, 2016, trans.), The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force: Search for Legitimacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, co-edited with Paul Midford), Operation Tomodachi (Reed International, 2017), Changing Security Policies in Postwar Japan: The Political Biography of Sakata Michita (Lexington, 2017, trans.), The Japan Self-Defense Forces Law (Cambridge Scholars, 2019), Okinawa and the U.S. Marine Corps, An “Alliance Asset,” and Okinawa’s Media and the Media’s Okinawa (all from Reed International in 2019), Japan’s Military Power (Cambridge Scholars, 2020, trans.), Japan as an Immigration Nation (Lexington, 2020, trans), and The Meiji Japanese Who Made Modern Taiwan (Lexington, 2022, trans). He is currently writing books on regional development in Japan, youth engagement, and countryside wisdom.

Dr. Eldridge and his family reside in Hyogo Prefecture, where he recently co-founded the study group, “Power Up in Kawanishi in the Morning,” at a café run by those with special needs, at which he also established a Japanese and English language bookstore. When he is not walking with his dog, Beau, or visiting with his nearby in-laws, he can be reached at robert@reedintl.com.

One of four sons of an USAF pilot and aeronautical engineer assigned to Aerojet General, now Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Space Systems Division, now Space and Missile Systems Center near Los Angeles.  Angelus was born an identical twin at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and lived in six countries and ten American states.

He attended Appalachian State University in North Carolina and Mesa College in California, completed studies at the University of New Mexico in International Relations in 1985.

Angelus has been involved in security and defense policies throughout his career as journalist, consultant and global business development specialist. He was a producer for Radio America in Washington D.C on geopolitical issues in 1986, and he produced the first Spanish-language news program for Gannett’s USA Today.  Thereafter he co-founded Panamerica Inc. with former Ambassador of Panama to the U.S., Juan Sosa, followed by a National Forum Foundation assignment to Polish National Television in Kraków in 1992.

In 1996 he founded USI Capital Corporation in Washington D.C. to focus on energy and security in the former Soviet bloc. Subsidiaries he established in Poland and Romania consulted for the hydrocarbon industry and published monthly local-language magazines while organizing international conferences featuring key corporate and government officials.

In the last decade Angelus engaged in reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, based in the UAE, facilitating teaming arrangements between local firms and foreign partners. In 2008 he was the architect of the “Athens Summit – Global Climate and Energy Security” in Greece in association with the Andreas Papandreou family.

In Saudi Arabia he facilitated joint venture introductions for infrastructure projects in 2009 on behalf of Al-Khodari Sons company. He also laid the foundation in 2010 for the Pan-Africa New Community Development Initiative (PAN-CDI) based on affordable housing in association with the family of President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi.

In 2012 Angelus co-organized the Independent Refineries China Summit in Qingdao in its first campaign to attract foreign speakers and international sponsors such as the World Refining Association. He was speaker on several other occasions — the Iraq Reconstruction Conference in Jordan in 2005, Global Arab Business in the UAE in 2011, and Downstream Asia in Singapore in 2012.

Angelus established Japan Associates to assist in the development of Japan’s defense industrial base in concert with Admiral Zumwalt Associates in Washington DC, to facilitate collaboration between Japanese companies and foreign partners.

Bob is currently head of Japan Defense and Aerospace and Consulting Services (JDACS), assisting domestic and international companies in Japan and the Indo-Pacific region.

Previously Bob was the senior executive representing Raytheon in Japan, responsible for Raytheon’s strategic relationships with customers and industrial partners in country, also responsible for coordinating Raytheon’s business unit executives across the company to develop and maintain a one-Raytheon approach to business in Japan. Raytheon International, Inc. (RII), Raytheon’s central resource for entering the global market at that time, identified opportunities and provided solutions to its international customers.

Prior to this role, Bob worked for the Japan Patriot Program as the Systems Engineering and Software Solutions Manager as well as the business area chief engineer for the Japan Patriot Program. In that role he was responsible for overseeing all technical aspects of the Japan Patriot program, including Systems Engineering, Integration, System Software, Production and production testing and proposal review. Bob was also responsible for the Japan Patriot business development as the capture lead, working with the major players in Japan industry and government, as well as the key US defense organizations and agencies responsible for the international defense market.

Bob spent 24 years in Japan in various roles and responsibilities supporting US and Japanese defense industry.  Mr. Morrissey worked at Raytheon for 39 years before retiring in 2021. He holds a BSEE from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a major study in microwave engineering.

Gen. Martinez was Commander of U.S. Forces Japan, and Commander of the 5th Air Force, Pacific Air Forces, the most senior U.S. military representative in Japan.
He was responsible for managing bilateral security issues, overseeing joint/bilateral exercises, administering the Status of Forces Agreement, improving combat readiness and enhancing the quality of life of 62,000 military and Department of Defense civilian personnel and 42,000 dependents.

Gen. Martinez was commissioned in 1986 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a command pilot with more than 4,000 hours in the C-17A, C-5B, C-141B and KC-135R. The general previously commanded the 62nd Airlift Wing, McChord Air Force Base, Washington, overseeing the Air Force’s only prime nuclear airlift force. His staff assignments include Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, Headquarters Allied Joint Force Command, Brunssum, the Netherlands; Chief of the Joint Mobility Operations Center at U.S. Transportation Command; Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellow with the DuPont Corporation in Wilmington, Delaware; and Inspector General, Headquarters Air Mobility Command.

Prior to his current assignment, he was the Director of Operations, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Illinois.

 

EDUCATION
1986 Bachelor of Science, basic science, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
1991 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
1994 Master of Arts, business administration, Webster University, St. Louis, Mo.
1996 Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
2001 Air War College, by seminar
2003 Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellow, DuPont Corporation, Wilmington, Del.
2005 Joint Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Va.

SUMMARY OF JOINT ASSIGNMENTS
1. July 2001 – June 2003, Chief, Mobility Systems Division, and Chief, Joint Mobility Operations Center, U.S. Transportation Command, Scott AFB, Ill., as a lieutenant colonel
2. March 2010 – April 2011, Deputy Commander, Political-Military Affairs, Combined Security Transition Command, Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command, Kabul, Afghanistan, as a brigadier general
3. June 2013 – May 2015, Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, Headquarters Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, the Netherlands, as a major general
4. October 2016 – present, Commander, United States Forces Japan, Yokota AB, Japan, as a lieutenant general

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
Distinguished Service Medal (Air Force) with oak leaf cluster
Defense Superior Service Medal
Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster
Defense Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster
Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters
Air Medal with oak leaf cluster
Aerial Achievement Medal
Air Force Achievement Medal
NATO Medal