Casimira “Cassie” Rodriguez is an Associate at The Asia Group, where she provides strategic analysis of geopolitical trends and U.S. foreign policy to support defense clients in strengthening their strategic foothold in the Indo-Pacific region.
Prior to joining The Asia Group, Cassie worked as an Assistant Foreign Policy Advisor at United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) in Hawaii. In this capacity, she provided foreign policy guidance to senior military and civilian leadership. She contributed to strategic plans, exercises, and global engagement and communications initiatives, coordinated policy matters and risk analysis with U.S. government stakeholders, and represented U.S. foreign policy interests in official engagements with foreign partners throughout the Indo-Pacific. She also served as a foreign affairs officer on the Japan Desk at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. where she coordinated high-level bilateral engagements with Japan and produced interagency reports assessing the political, economic, and military factors influencing the U.S.-Japan relationship.
Cassie has also held positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, where she focused on U.S.-Japan relations and facilitated international exchange events. At CSIS, she conducted research on issues driving U.S.-Japan cooperation and U.S. policy in Asia and collaborated closely with leadership and to produce compelling content for executive interviews, speeches, podcasts, and publications. In 2021, Cassie was recognized as a U.S.-Japan Next-Generation Leader by Pacific Forum, and subsequently published a paper on the evolution of U.S.-led alliance systems in East Asia.
Cassie holds an MPA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a BA in Politics with certificates in East Asian Studies and the History and Practice of Diplomacy from Princeton University. She studied advanced Japanese at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies as a Blakemore Freeman Fellow and at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies. In her spare time, she enjoys working out at the gym, reading fantasy novels, and creative writing. Cassie has working level proficiency in Japanese.