Arbenita Sopaj
Adjunct Faculty
Office Hours: M/W 10:00-11:00 AM.
Arbenita Sopaj
Adjunct Faculty
Bio
Dr. Arbenita Sopaj is an Adjunct Lecturer at Rochester Institute of Technology in Kosovo (RITK), where she will teach Public Policy. She is a political scientist and lecturer specializing in international relations, peace and conflict studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Kobe University, Japan, as well as master’s degrees from Kobe University and Jagiellonian University in Poland.
Her academic interests include U.S.-Japan and U.S.-Kosovo relations, with a particular focus on diplomacy and security. She is a Lecturer and a Researcher at the Asian Governance Studies Center at Doshisha University in Japan. In addition to her academic appointments, she serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Indo-Pacific Studies Center in Australia, a Researcher at the Research Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs in Japan, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan. She previously served at the Embassy of the Republic of Kosovo in Japan and has also served as a peer reviewer for IAFOR’s 16th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS2025).
In May 2026, Dr. Sopaj published Shaping Constitutions: America’s Role in Japan and Kosovo with Springer Nature and a contributor to The Palgrave Handbook of Global Approaches to Peace, edited by Aigul Kulnazarova.
Select Scholarship
Sopaj A., 2026, Shaping Constitutions: America’s Influence in Japan and Kosovo, Springer Nature, Switzerland.
Sopaj A., 2026, “Global Peacekeeping: Japan’s Contributions and Limitations in Developing Regions,” in Aigul Kulnazarova (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Approaches to Peace, Springer Nature, Switzerland.
Sopaj A., 2020–2024, “Defense of Japan: Revision of Article 9,” in Tosh Minohara (eds), Handbook of Japanese Foreign Relations and Policies during the 2010s, MHM, Japan Documents, Japan.
Sopaj A., 2023, “Lessons from NATO’s Intervention in Kosovo,” Taipei Times, Taiwan.
Sopaj A., 2022, “The Geopolitical Role of the US in the Rewriting of the Japanese Constitution of 1947, and the Formation of the Kosovo Constitution of 2008,” International Studies Association (ISA), United States.
Sopaj A., 2022, “U.S. More Alike Than Not: Kosovo and Taiwan,” Global Taiwan Institute, Washington, D.C.