Michael H. Armacost is a Shorenstein APARC Fellow at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. He has held senior positions at the Department of Defense and on the National Security Council. He has also served as undersecretary of state for political affairs and as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and Japan. He was president of the Brookings Institution from 1995 to 2002. He has received the President's Distinguished Service Award, the Defense Department's Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award, and the Japanese government's Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. He is the author of Friends or Rivals? The Insider's Account of U.S.–Japan Relations and The Politics of Weapons Innovation: The Thor-Jupiter Controversy. He also coedited, with Daniel Okimoto, The Future of America's Alliances in Northeast Asia.