Mr. Erik M. Jacobs, Former Policy Advisor, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Joins Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA as Non-Resident Scholar for the US-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative

Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA (Sasakawa USA) is pleased to announce that Mr. Erik M. Jacobs has joined our team as non-resident scholar for the US-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative.

Mr. Jacobs is an experienced Indo-Pacific security and technology professional who served as a policy advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from 2018 until 2020 and as the policy coordinator for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from 2020 until 2021. At OSTP, he led the coordination of the ministerial-level 14th Joint High-Level Committee Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation between the U.S. and Japan, advised and briefed Senate-confirmed officials on foreign investment and acquisition of American technologies as a part of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), supported the rollout of the U.S. chief technology officer’s American Artificial Intelligence Initiative, and staffed two official vice presidential visits to Japan.

Mr. Jacobs is a JET Program Alumni (Hyogo, 2013-2016) and has published extensively on U.S.-Japan science and technology relations, including an upcoming book chapter on U.S.-Japan science and technology relations in the 1960s. He is a non-resident fellow with the Global Taiwan Institute and holds a master’s degree in Asian studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree  in political science with a concentration in Japanese from Temple University.

Mr. Jacobs will provide research and analysis on technology, foreign policy, and national security challenges facing the United States and Japan, as well as policy coordination across the private and public sectors on issues such as supply chain security.