SOGOLAS Research Seminar: Okinawa's Alternative Geopolitical View of 21st century Indo-Pacific Dynamics

Abstract: In the 1920s, the geographer Karl Haushofer theorized the existence of an "Indo-Pacific" region, specular to the European Atlantic space, with the ultimate goal of delegitimizing Germany’s maritime rivals in this region. Assuming different characteristics andconnotation, this geographical conceptualization has (re-)surfaced in the public and political discourse on foreign policy since the mid-2010s following its adoption in Japan (2016) and the US (2017) as part of their official narratives. Since then, this regional label has become increasingly present, in several variations, in states’ official documents worldwide, including Australia, India, ASEAN, South Korea, the UK, France and the EU. This new popularization of the "Indo-Pacific" produced a corresponding increase of academic interest in the subject. Placing a strong focus on regional dynamics, interstate conflict/cooperation oscillations, and new strategic alignments across actors within and without this region, the scientific literature predominantly employs a state-centric approach to the topic, leaving unresolved the question of how Indo-Pacific security or securitized borderlands are affected by, but also react to recent regional dynamics. 

This research seminar introduces "OKIALTGEO", an ETAG-sponsored project, whose objective (among others) is to enrich the Indo-Pacific research trends by analyzing the case of Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture, both as a borderland shaped by structural forces and as an active agent creating its own regional vision and seeking to influence regional dynamics, using a multidisciplinary approach.     

Mattia Dello Spedale Venti is currently a postdoc research fellow at the Department of Asian Studies at Tallinn University. His project “OKIALTGEO”, sponsored by the Estonian Ministry of Education under ETAG framework and awarded the Seal of Excellence by the European Commission under MSCA program, examines the effects of Indo-Pacific geopolitical dynamics on borderlands and the reaction of these marginal spaces to them, using Okinawa as a study case. From July to December 2025, he conducted research on Kyoto city diplomacy and the League of Historical Cities (LHC) network at the Kyoto Institute, Library and Archives (KILA) under a Kyoto prefectural government program for young foreign researchers. From April 2024 to March 2025, he held a Canon Foundation Europe fellowship at Kobe University, where he analysed Japanese city diplomacy with a focus on Kobe. He earned his Ph.D. in Asian Studies from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” in July 2024 with a dissertation on Japan’s security policy and public diplomacy strategy under the administration of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō. His research interests include contemporary Japanese history, international relations, and subnational diplomacy.

Moderator: TLU Lecturer of International Relations Toni Čerkez