Dr. Naoko Aoki is an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. She specializes in East Asian security issues and has worked on the North Korean nuclear problem, American alliances in Asia, Japanese foreign and security policies as well as nuclear dynamics in the region. Prior to joining RAND, Dr. Aoki was a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Her professional experience includes a nuclear security fellowship at the U.S. House of Representatives. She was also a 2018-2019 Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow and an adjunct political scientist at RAND. Dr. Aoki was formerly a journalist and has visited North Korea 18 times on reporting trips. She holds a B.A. in English from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, an M.A. in international relations and international economics from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in policy studies from the University of Maryland, College Park.