RCAST Security Seminar #14 on contested zones surrounding the Red Sea and Horn of Africa

Event Information

RCAST is pleased to announce the upcoming seminar on the contested zones surrounding the Red Sea, particularly to the Horn of Africa and involving intra and extra regional actors. Scrambles for access to dual-use transportation infrastructure such as ports, rail links and airports in the Horn of Africa have occurred recently between regional and global powers such as Turkey, the Gulf States, Iran, Japan and China. These security interactions have happened alongside the enduring French entrenchment and US counterterrorism security actions, and necessarily pose a heightened risk of destabilization of the security of an already conflict-ridden area as well as opportunities for development. Dr. Cannon, a pioneering expert on this emerging issue, explores and clarifies this complicated situation. A short lunch discussion follows lecture and Q&A.

This seminar is co-organized by Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) of the University of Tokyo (Komaba II) and the Institute for Advanced Global Studies (IAGS) of the University of Tokyo (Komaba I).

For attendance, please register by sending e-mail to: office@me.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp

RCAST Security Seminar #14
"Security Interactions and Power Projection in the Horn of Africa: Turkey, Iran, China and the Indo-Pacific Powers."

Speaker: Brendon J. Cannon, Assistant Professor of International Security, Khalifa University of Science and Technology

Discussant: Mitsugi Endo, Professor of Contemporary African Politics, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo

Moderator: Satoshi Ikeuchi, Professor of Religion and Global Security, RCAST, The University of Tokyo

Seminar schedule:
Friday, June 14, 2019
10:30am-12:00 pm Lecture and Q&A by Dr. Cannon
12:00pm-13:00pm Lunch (Sandwiches are served)

Brendon J. Cannon is an Assistant Professor of International Security at the Institute of International and Civil Security (IICS) at Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science with an emphasis on International Relations from the University of Utah, USA (2009). His research interests include contextualizing domestic, regional and international relations in eastern Africa, regional security in the Middle East and western Indian Ocean region, the political economy of ports, bases and airports, as well as the Quad’s Indo-Pacific strategy as contrasted by China’s BRI in eastern Africa. His is the author of multiple articles and books, with publications appearing in African Security, Terrorism and Political Violence, The Journal of Strategic Security, Insight Turkey, and African Security Review.

He will stay at the University of Tokyo’s Kashiwa Campus.

Dr. Cannon’s recent publications on the related topics include;

Brendon J. Cannon and Federico Donelli, “Middle Eastern States in the Horn of Africa: Security Interactions and Power Projection,” Italian Institute for International Political Studies, April 30, 2019.

Cannon, Brendon J. (2019). “Foreign State Influence and Somalia’s 2017 Presidential Election: An Analysis.” Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies, Volume 18, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 20-49.

Brendon J. Cannon, “Grand Strategies in Contested Zones: Japan’s Indo-Pacific, China’s BRI and Eastern Africa,” Rising Powers Quarterly, Volume 3, Issue 2 (The "Indo-Pacific" - Regional Dynamics in the 21st Century's New Geopolitical Center of Gravity), Aug. 2018, pp. 195-221.

Brendon J. Cannon and Ash Rossiter, “Ethiopia, Berbera Port and the Shifting Balance of Power in the Horn of Africa,” Rising Powers Quarterly, Volume 2, Issue 4, Dec. 2017, pp. 7-29.

Rossiter, Ash and Cannon, Brendon J. “Re-examining the “Base: The Political and Security Dimensions of Turkey’s Military Presence in Somalia.” Insight Turkey, Volume 21, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 167-188.

RSVP: Please drop a line to office@me.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp