Wakana Mukai is Associate Professor at the Faculty of International Relations, Asia University. Before joining Asia University, Mukai worked as Project Assistant Professor at the Policy Alternatives Research Institute (currently Institute for Future Initiative), the University of Tokyo, Research Fellow at the Ocean Policy Research Foundation (currently the Sasakawa Peace Foundation), and Research Fellow at the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Nonproliferation (currently Center for Disarmament, Science and Technology), Japan Institute of International Affairs, where she coordinated multiple projects and studies related to international security and international politics, with a special focus on arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation. Mukai holds a B.A. in language and area studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, received her M.P.P from the Graduate School of Public Policy, the University of Tokyo, and her Ph.D. from the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo.