Thomas Cynkin is a nonresident senior fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the practice lead, Japan and Northeast Asia, of the Transnational Strategy Group, a global consulting firm operating at the nexus of policy and business. An acknowledged authority on Japan and broader Asian affairs, Cynkin brings over thirty years of senior level international government, corporate, and academic experience.

He previously headed the Washington Office of Fujitsu Ltd., a global information technology corporation, as chief corporate representative, vice president, and general manager. Cynkin also served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade association for Fortune 50 high tech corporations. He is a member of the Japan Commerce Association of Washington, DC.

Cynkin served as a career member of the US Foreign Service for over twenty years, during which he was assigned as a Japanese-speaking diplomat in Japan for seven years; served as US chargé d’affaires to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva; and was the Asian affairs advisor to two deputy secretaries of state and two US ambassadors to the United Nations, among other diplomatic postings. Cynkin is the recipient of multiple awards from the State Department, including the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award and a commendation from the secretary of state for “extraordinary service to the American people” on the 9/11 Task Force.

Academically, Cynkin taught graduate seminars on the Chinese and Japanese economies at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and was a member of the senior staff of Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington, DC. He is often published and interviewed by Tokyo-based periodicals.

Cynkin received his PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He was a fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and worked at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis before entering government service.