Ralph A. Cossa is President of the Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, a non-profit, foreign policy research institute affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He is senior editor of the Forum's quarterly electronic journal, Comparative Connections. Mr. Cossa is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Experts and Eminent Persons Group.

He is a founding member and current international co-chair of the multinational track two Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP). He co-chairs the CSCAP study group aimed at halting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Asia Pacific region and also serves as Executive Director of the U.S. Member Committee (USCSCAP). He also sits on the Board of the Council on U.S.-Korean Security Studies and is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NY) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London).

He is a frequent contributor to regional newspapers, including the Japan Times, Korea Times, and International Herald Tribune.

His most recent works are The United States and the Asia-Pacific Region: Security Strategy for the Obama Administration (Washington DC: Center for a New American Security, 2009); "Taiwan Strait Crisis Management: The Role of Confidence-Building Measures," American Foreign Policy Interests, Vol. 30, No. 6, Nov–Dec. 2008; "U.S.-Japan Relations: What Should Washington Do?" in America's Role in Asia: Recommendations for U.S. Policy from Both Sides of the Pacific (San Francisco: Asia Foundation, 2008), pp. 207-218; An East Asian Community and the United States, Ralph A. Cossa and Akihiko Tanaka, eds., (Washington, D.C.: CSIS Press, 2007) and "East Asia Community Building: Time for the United States to Get on Board," Pacific Forum CSIS Issues &Insights No. 17 - 07, October 2007.