Status
Visiting Lecturer
Contact
rhsakoda@nps.edu
Research Interests
U.S.-Japan Relations; East Asia; Pacific Security; Civil-Military Relations |
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Biography
Robin H. “Sak” Sakoda is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. He previously was a Partner with Armitage International, L.C. since the company was established in March 2005, and served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State December 2002 through January 2005.
After U.S. Government service at the Pentagon in 1999, he headed Sakoda Associates while also a Senior Associate with Armitage Associates. During the last five years of his U.S. Army career, he served as Country Director for Japan, Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) from 1994. He was a member of the panel headed by Richard Armitage that produced two reports in 2000 and 2007: U.S.-Japan Alliance: “Advancing Toward a Mature Partnership”, and “US-Japan Alliance: Getting Asia Right through 2020”.
Mr. Sakoda was the Senior Japan Director in OSD from 1995 as the U.S. and Japan reviewed and revised the Guidelines for US-Japan defense cooperation, incorporating areas of peacekeeping, humanitarian relief, and regional security. The Secretaries of State and Defense, with their Government of Japan counterparts, issued the results of this work in the revised “Defense Guidelines” on September 23, 1997. While serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he also worked to improve the relationship between US forces and communities in Okinawa through land returns, noise abatement initiatives, and adjustments to U.S. operational and administrative procedures culminating in the Final Report issued by the Special Action Committee on Okinawa.
Mr. Sakoda graduated from The Military College of South Carolina, The Citadel and was commissioned Infantry in May 1978. His operational assignments include duty with the 2d Infantry Division in the Korea as platoon leader and executive officer. He served as company commander and in various staff positions while assigned to the 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Washington from 1982 through 1985. From 1992 through 1994, he served in the 25th Infantry Division (LIGHT) as the Assistant Chief of Staff, G5 for Civil-Military Operations; Chief, G3 Exercises; and Executive Officer of the 3d Battalion, 21st Infantry.
Mr. Sakoda was a foreign area officer and studied Japanese language at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and the Foreign Service Institute in Yokohama, Japan. He received his M.A. in National Security Affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School in June 1988. Upon completing language studies in Yokohama, he served as aide-de-camp to the Commanding General, U.S. Army Japan/IX Corps in 1989.
Mr. Sakoda completed Airborne and Ranger schools; the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Command and Staff College in Ichigaya, Tokyo; and the U.S. Army Command and Staff College.
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