10/26/23 | New Books in Asian Studies: “Japan’s Prisoners of Conscience: Protest and Law During the Iraq War”

October 5, 2023March 19, 2024Archives & Recordings, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Thursday, October 26, 2023

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons Room 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

When the Bush Administration demanded Japanese “boots on the ground” to support its 2003 invasion of Iraq, Prime Minister Jun’ichiro Koizumi responded by deploying a small contingent of the Self-Defense Forces in the first significant display of SDF force abroad. On the day following the initial deployment, three antiwar protesters distributed flyers at SDF apartment buildings in Tachikawa titled “Let’s Think Together and Raise Our Voices Against the SDF Deployment to Iraq!” They were arrested a month later and detained in police cells for 75 days. Amnesty International called the three Japanese detainees “Prisoners of Conscience,” the first time it applied the term in Japan.

The case presented a severe test for Japan’s criminal justice system. Who would stand up to support the lonely trio? Would they find adequate defense counsel? How would the lawyers be paid? Would the courts recognize constitutional protection for political speech?

The author will talk about his new book, Japan’s Prisoners of Conscience — Protest and Law During the Iraq War, (Routledge, 2023), that takes readers into Japan’s courtrooms and delivers rich descriptions of the lawyers and supporters who rallied to defend the three protesters.

Speaker

A picture of Larry Repeta smiling and looking at the camera

Lawrence Repeta is a graduate of the University of Washington Law School. He has served as a lawyer, business executive and law professor in Japan and the United States. The primary focus of his research is Japan’s constitutional law. He is best known in Japan as the plaintiff in a suit that made constitutional history by opening Japan’s courts to free reporting. He has served on the board of directors of Information Clearinghouse Japan, an NGO devoted to promoting open government in Japan and the Japan Civil Liberties Union.

Moderator

portrait of Celeste Arrington posing with arms crossed in black outfit

Professor Celeste Arrington specializes in comparative politics, with a regional focus on the Koreas and Japan. Her research interests include law and social change, governance, civil society, social movements, policy-making processes, lawyers, the media and politics, and qualitative methods. She is also interested in the international relations and security of Northeast Asia and transnational activism.

Her first book was Accidental Activists: Victim Movements and Government Accountability in Japan and South Korea (Cornell, 2016). She has published articles in Comparative Political Studies, Law & Society Review, Journal of East Asian Studies, Law & Policy, Asian Survey, and elsewhere. With Patricia Goedde, she co-edited Rights Claiming in South Korea (Cambridge, 2021). Her current book project analyzes the legalistic turn in Korean and Japanese governance through paired case studies related to tobacco control and disability rights.

Her research has received support from numerous fellowships and programs. She is a core faculty of the GW Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS) and President of the Association for Korean Political Studies. GW’s Office of the Vice President for Research awarded her the 2021 Early Career Research Scholar Award.

A graphic for Assessing Taiwan's Security Dynamics in a Competitive International Environment

9/29/23 | Assessing Taiwan’s Security Dynamics in a Competitive International Environment

August 31, 2023March 19, 2024Archives & Recordings, Taiwan Conference Series, Taiwan RoundtablesLeave a Comment

Friday, September 29, 2023

10:30 AM – 2:00 PM ET

State Room

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

Recent developments on the global stage are having an outsized impact on Taiwan’s security and political economy. Continuing supply chain disruptions, moves to de-risk or de-couple from China, heightened geopolitical tension in the Taiwan Strait with rising Chinese pressure, all raise questions for Taiwan’s security and stability.

Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies as a group of experts discuss strategies, policies and challenges in promoting the economic and military resiliency of Taiwan.

Panel One: Strategies for Security (10:30 am-12:00 pm)

Defending Taiwan and Deterrence Strategy, Lonnie Henley, GWU

Alliance Politics and Taiwan, Bonnie Glaser, GMF

Strategic Signaling and US Posture, David Sacks, Council on Foreign Relations

Moderator, Robert Sutter, GWU

Lunch (12:00-12:30 pm)

Panel Two: Building Partnerships for Resiliency (12:30-2:00 pm)

Indo-Pacific Partnerships and Regional Views, Shihoko Goto, Wilson Center

New Southbound Policy and Impact, Adnan Rasool, University of Tennessee at Martin

US Role in Building Economic Security, Barbara Weisel, Rock Creek Global Advisors

Moderator, Deepa Ollapally, GWU

Speakers

Professor Lonnie Henley is a Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington University, where he teaches course on the Chinese military. He retired from federal service in 2019 after more than 40 years as an intelligence officer and East Asia expert. Professor Henley served 22 years as a US Army China foreign area officer and military intelligence officer in Korea, and in various positions at the Defense Intelligence Agency, on Army Staff, and in the History Department at West Point. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2000 and joined the senior civil service, first as Defense Intelligence Officer for East Asia and later as Senior Intelligence Expert for Strategic Warning at DIA. He worked two years as a senior analyst with CENTRA Technology, Inc. before returning to government service as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia. He rejoined DIA in 2008, serving for six years as the agency’s senior China analyst, then as National Intelligence Collection Officer for East Asia, and finally again with a second term as Defense Intelligence Officer for East Asia. Professor Henley holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and Chinese from the US Military Academy at West Point, and master’s degrees in Chinese language from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar; in Chinese history from Columbia University; and in strategic intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College (now National Intelligence University).

Bonnie S. Glaser is the Managing Director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program. She is also a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. She is a co-author of US-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis (Brookings Press, April 2023). She was previously Senior Adviser for Asia and the Director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Ms. Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy for more than three decades.

From 2008 to mid-2015, she was a senior adviser with the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies, and from 2003 to 2008, she was a senior associate in the CSIS International Security Program. Prior to joining CSIS, she served as a consultant for various U.S. government offices, including the Departments of Defense and State. Ms. Glaser has published widely in academic and policy journals, including the Washington Quarterly, China Quarterly, Asian Survey, International Security, Contemporary Southeast Asia, American Foreign Policy Interests, Far Eastern Economic Review, and Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, as well as in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and in various edited volumes on Asian security. She is currently a board member of the U.S. Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She served as a member of the Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board China Panel in 1997. Ms. Glaser received her B.A. in political science from Boston University and her M.A. with concentrations in international economics and Chinese studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

David Sacks is a Research Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where his work focuses on U.S.-China relations, U.S.-Taiwan relations, Chinese foreign policy, cross-Strait relations, and the political thought of Hans Morgenthau. He was previously the Special Assistant to the President for Research at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining CFR, Mr. Sacks worked on political military affairs at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which handles the full breadth of the United States’ relationship with Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties. Mr. Sacks was also a Princeton in Asia fellow in Hangzhou, China. He received his M.A. in International Relations and International Economics, with honors, from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). At SAIS, he was the recipient of the A. Doak Barnett Award, given annually to the most distinguished China Studies graduate. Mr. Sacks received his B.A. in Political Science, Magna Cum Laude, from Carleton College.

Shihoko Goto is Acting Director of the Asia Program and Director for geoeconomics and Indo-Pacific enterprise at the Wilson Center. She specializes in trade and economic interests across the Indo-Pacific, and is also focused on geopolitical developments in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. She is also a columnist for The Diplomat magazine and contributing editor to The Globalist. She is currently an executive board member of the Japan-America Society of Washington DC, and a member of the Global Taiwan Institute’s US-Taiwan Task Force. Prior to joining the Wilson Center, she was a financial journalist covering the international political economy with a focus on Asian markets. As a correspondent for Dow Jones News Service and United Press International based in Tokyo and Washington, she has reported extensively on policies impacting the global financial system as well as international trade. She was also formerly a donor country relations officer at the World Bank. Previously, she was a member of the Mansfield Foundation’s US-Japan Network for the Future, and she has received the Freeman Foundation’s Jefferson journalism fellowship at the East-West Center as well as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s journalism fellowship for the Salzburg Global Seminar. She received an M.A. in international political theory from the Graduate School of Political Science, Waseda University, Japan, and a B.A. in Modern History, from Trinity College, University of Oxford, UK.

Professor Adnan Rasool is the Hardy Graham Distinguished Faculty Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He specializes in the foreign policy of small states with a particular focus on countries in east Asia and the pacific. His latest work analyzes Taiwan’s new southbound policy framework from a smart diplomacy perspective. Adnan is currently working on the initial phases of long term research project that investigates how middle powers in east Asia and the pacific navigate great power competition. His work has appeared in journals like Asian Politics and Policy, and the Journal of Indian and Asian Studies. Adnan’s latest book, Sabotage: Lessons in Bureaucratic Governance from Pakistan, Taiwan, and Turkey (Lexington Books, 2023), is out now.

Professor Rasool has previously worked as an international development consultant in south and southeast Asia. He is also a former Taiwan Fellow.

Barbara Weisel is a Managing Director at Rock Creek Global Advisors, where she focuses on international trade and investment policy and negotiations as well as market access and regulatory matters. Ms. Weisel has more than 25 years of experience advancing international trade and investment initiatives, expanding market access in Asia-Pacific markets, and resolving specific issues faced by businesses in the Asia-Pacific. Ms. Weisel served most recently as Assistant US Trade Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She was the US chief negotiator for the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from its inception in 2008 through its signing in 2016. She was responsible for developing US positions in coordination with other government agencies, Congress and the US private sector.

In addition to TPP, Ms. Weisel led efforts to expand US market access and promote US economic interests in the Asia Pacific, working with foreign government officials at all levels on intellectual property, digital trade, services, financial services, agriculture, customs, and product standards. As Deputy Assistant US Trade Representative for Bilateral Asian Affairs (Korea, Southeast Asia, and South Asia), Ms. Weisel served as negotiator of FTAs with Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and Singapore. She also was charged with monitoring and enforcing Asian countries’ compliance with their World Trade Organization commitments and working with US companies to resolve specific issues in these markets. Earlier, Ms. Weisel served as the official responsible for managing global pharmaceutical regulatory issues and as Director for Japan Affairs. Before joining USTR, she worked at the State Department from 1984-1994, serving in a variety of positions, including as international economist on Japan, the Persian Gulf, and North Africa. Ms. Weisel earned two Masters Degrees from Harvard University in 1983 in Public Policy with a focus on international development, and Religious Studies, with a focus on Islamic civilization. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College (Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude).

Moderators

Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University (2011-Present ). He also served as Director of the School’s main undergraduate program involving over 2,000 students from 2013-2019. He has served as Special Adviser to the Dean on Strategic Outreach (2021-present). His earlier full-time position was Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University (2001-2011).

A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter has published 22 books (four with multiple editions), over 300 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent books are Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy of an Emerging Global Force, Fifth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present, Fourth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield 2022).

Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) saw service as senior specialist and director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US Government’s National Intelligence Council, the China division director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Deepa Ollapally, pictured in professional attire

Deepa M. Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, and Asian regional and maritime security. She is Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program that tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia.

Dr. Ollapally is currently working on a funded book, Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indian Ocean Region, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She is the author of five books including Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford, 2012) and The Politics of Extremism in South Asia (Cambridge, 2008). Her most recent books are two edited volumes, Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (Routledge, 2017), and Nuclear Debates in Asia: The Role of Geopolitics and Domestic Processes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Dr. Ollapally has received grants from the Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Asia Foundation for projects related to India and Asia. Previously, she was Associate Professor at Swarthmore College and has been a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London and at Columbia University. Dr. Ollapally also held senior positions in the policy world including the US Institute of Peace, Washington DC and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, Diane Rehm Show, and Reuters TV. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

9/14/23 | Faces of Victims of 112

August 24, 2023March 19, 2024Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Thursday, September 14, 2023

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

This exhibition is initiated by the Thai human rights group, 112WATCH, and is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. It aims to inform the public about the impact of lèse-majesté law on the lives of individuals. Thailand’s lèse-majesté law, Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, which states that defamatory, insulting, or threatening comments about the king, queen, and regent are punishable and is liberally interpreted by the courts, is among the strictest in the world, with penalties ranging from three to fifteen years in prison. There are many civilians have been targeted by the lèse-majesté law, being criminalized, unable to return home, and forced to become a refugee. In the past years, there has been an increase in the number of Thai youths, charged by lèse-majesté law. Some have faced the consequences within Thailand, while some fled the country. Their fate is uncertain.

This mobile exhibition is part of a journey of the exhibition series in Northern America, the main exhibition will take place at Columbia University from September 18th to 25th. The Sigur Center will be hosting part of the exhibition on Thursday, September 14th from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm in Lindner Family Commons. It will present a reflection on the lèse-majesté law on the life of Thai activists in Thailand, in prison, and in exile. It tells the stories beyond the impact on members of the society, but also on an individual basis. What do they think about the law? How do they feel being in the position of an enemy of the state? What is their view on the lèse-majesté law? And what kind of support do they need from the international community?

As part of the event, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an Associate Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University and the founder of 112WATCH will discuss the future of the 112 following the recent Thai election. He will also explore the potential for both Thai and international communities to effect positive policy change concerning Article 112 in Thailand. Please join the Sigur Center and 112WATCH for this special discussion and exhibition!

For more information about 112Watch: https://112watch.org/

Speaker

Pavin Chachavalpongpun is an Associate Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University. His research interests include Thailand’s domestic political and international relations, particularly the role of the Thai monarchy in the political domain. He is also a chief editor of the online journal Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia in which all articles are translated from English into Japanese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, Filipino, Vietnamese and Burmese. Pavin is the author and editor of several books. His forthcoming manuscript is tilted “Rama X: The Thai Monarchy under King Vajiralongkorn,” to be published by Yale Southeast Asia Studies and released this winter. After the coup of 2014, Pavin was twice summoned by the Thai military for his critical comments on its political intervention. Denying the legitimacy of the coup, Pavin rejected the summons. Shortly afterward, a warrant was issued for his arrest and his passport was revoked. This situation forced him to apply for refugee status with Japan. Pavin received his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He earned his BA from the Department of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

A graphic that says "Building Taiwan's Soft Power"

7/18/23 | Taiwan Roundtable | Building Taiwan’s Soft Power: Media, Democracy, and Global Image

June 28, 2023July 25, 2023Archives & Recordings, Taiwan Roundtables1 Comment

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM ET Lunch

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET Event

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

Taiwan’s soft power has served as a key diplomatic asset in the face of constrained international space. How is Taiwan’s soft power faring currently in the context of increased Chinese pressure, the war in Ukraine, geopolitical challenges in the Indo-Pacific and new global economic shifts? The Sigur Center for Asian Studies invites you to a Roundtable with experts who will analyze the role of the media, democratic governance, and business climate in contributing to Taiwan’s soft power capabilities and its diplomatic image abroad.

Topics

The Impact of Media in Taiwan on Images at Home and Abroad, Shu-ling Ko, Visting Fellow, The National Endowment for Democracy; Reporter, Kyodo News

U.S. Engagement with Taiwan’s Democracy and Implications, Ryan Hass, Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, The Michael H. Armacost Chair, Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, The Brookings Institution

How Does Governance and Business Climate Matter for Taiwan’s Global Image?, Tiffany Ma, Senior Director, BowerGroupAsia

Speakers

Ms. Shu-ling Ko is an English-language reporter from Taiwan who, in 2011, joined the Taipei office of Kyodo News, Japan’s oldest and largest news agency. In that capacity, she has written on various issues pertaining to Taiwanese politics and foreign affairs, including coverage of human rights abuses, elections, and cross-strait relations with the People’s Republic of China. Before joining Kyodo News, she worked as a beat reporter for the Taipei Times, the top English-language daily publication in Taiwan, where she managed overseas assignments in Latin America and the South Pacific. For her coverage of cross-strait relations and Pacific politics, Ms. Ko was awarded a Jefferson Fellowship at the East-West Center in 2015. She has also served on the executive committees of the Association of Taiwan Journalists, the East-West Center, and the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents Club.

Mr. Ryan Hass is director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at Brookings. He is also a senior fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. He was part of the inaugural class of David M. Rubenstein fellows at Brookings, and is a nonresident affiliated fellow in the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School. Hass focuses his research and analysis on enhancing policy development on the pressing political, economic, and security challenges facing the United States in East Asia.

From 2013 to 2017, Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the National Security Council (NSC) staff. In that role, he advised President Obama and senior White House officials on all aspects of U.S. policy toward China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and coordinated the implementation of U.S. policy toward this region among U.S. government departments and agencies. He joined President Obama’s state visit delegations in Beijing and Washington respectively in 2014 and 2015, and the president’s delegation to Hangzhou, China, for the G-20 in 2016, and to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meetings in 2016.

Ms. Tiffany Ma manages BowerGroupAsia (BGA)’s client relationships and engagements. She directs analysis and activities designed to advise Fortune 500 companies on public policy issues, regional geopolitics, and stakeholder management. Ma is an expert on Asia-Pacific security issues. She regularly writes and speaks on China-Taiwan relations, U.S.-China relations, and Asia-Pacific maritime security. Her research and analysis has been incorporated into regular briefings with decision-makers, including at the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, and with staff and members of Congress. She has been featured in both U.S. and international media outlets, including Agence France-Presse, Voice of America, Christian Science Monitor, and Liberty Times.

Prior to joining BGA, Ma was the senior director for political and security affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington, D.C., where she led major initiatives on geopolitical and international security affairs in the Asia-Pacific that regularly convened senior government officials and specialists from across the region. She began her career as a research associate at the Project 2049 Institute, an Asia security think tank based in Arlington, Virginia, and has also worked at the International Crisis Group in Beijing, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

Moderator

Deepa Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, and Asian regional and maritime security. She is Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program that tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia.

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5/12/23 | Taiwan Roundtable | Cross-Strait Relations and U.S. Strategy at a Crossroad?

April 21, 2023May 26, 2023Archives & Recordings, Taiwan RoundtablesLeave a Comment

Friday, May 12, 2023

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM ET Lunch

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET Event

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

How is the intensification of Chinese pressure in the Taiwan Strait affecting cross strait politics and U.S. strategy? What options are open to the U.S. and Taiwan to safeguard their interests and what are the implications?

Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for a luncheon discussion with top political and strategic experts.

Topics

Military Scenarios in the Taiwan Strait and U.S. Deterrence Strategy, Joel Wuthnow, Senior Research Fellow, National Defense University

How are Identity and Ideology in Taiwan Shaping Cross-Strait Perceptions?, Rosalie Chen, Assistant Professor of Psychology, The Dominican University of California

Cross-Strait Politics and Evolving U.S.-Taiwan Relations, John Dotson, Deputy Director, The Global Taiwan Institute

Speakers

Dr. Joel Wuthnow is a senior research fellow in the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs within the Institute for National Strategic Studies at NDU. His research areas include Chinese foreign and security policy, Chinese military affairs, U.S.-China relations, and strategic developments in East Asia. In addition to his duties in INSS, he also serves as an adjunct professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

His recent books and monographs, all from NDU Press, include Gray Dragons: Assessing China’s Senior Military Leadership (2022), Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan (2022, lead editor), The PLA Beyond Borders: Chinese Military Operations in Regional and Global Context (2021, lead editor), System Overload: Can China’s Military Be Distracted in a War over Taiwan? (2020), and Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA: Assessing Chinese Military Reforms (2019, co-editor). His research and commentary has also appeared in outlets such as Asia Policy, Asian Security, China Leadership Monitor, The China Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Joint Force Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Strategic Studies, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Naval War College Review, and in edited volumes.

Prior to joining NDU, Dr. Wuthnow was a China analyst at CNA, a postdoctoral fellow in the China and the World Program at Princeton University, and a pre-doctoral fellow at The Brookings Institution. His degrees are from Princeton University (A.B., summa cum laude, in Public and International Affairs), Oxford University (M.Phil. in Modern Chinese Studies), and Columbia University (Ph.D. in Political Science). He is proficient in Mandarin.

Rosalie Chen is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Dominican University of California. Her research interests are interdisciplinary in nature and lie at the intersection of social psychology, political science, and culture. Rosalie studies ideology in the East Asian cultural context, the national identity issue in cross-strait relations, and the role of culture-specific emotions at the group level in motivating international conflict. She is particularly interested in exploring international relations from the angles of political psychology and culture. Previously, she taught at Colgate University before joining DUC. Rosalie received her B.S. from Truman State University, M.A. from George Washington University, and Ph.D. from National Taiwan University.

John Dotson is the deputy director at the Global Taiwan Institute. John has performed extensive writing and research on a range of political and national security issues related to U.S. policy in East Asia, to include Chinese propaganda and influence efforts, military-civil fusion efforts within the People’s Liberation Army, and patterns in military coercion efforts directed against Taiwan. He is a proficient Mandarin linguist, who has performed extensive original research in indigenous Chinese language sources.

John holds an M.A. in National Security Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, and a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins-SAIS.

Moderator

A graphic for North Korea, Japan, and Biopolitics of Repatriation

5/4/23 | Gaston Sigur Memorial Lecture: North Korea, Japan and Biopolitics of Repatriation

April 14, 2023May 26, 2023Archives & Recordings, Gaston Sigur Memorial LectureLeave a Comment

Thursday, May 4, 2023

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Lindner Commons, 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

On December 14, 1959, amidst much fanfare and tears, the first repatriation boat carried thousands of Koreans from Niigata, Japan, to Cheongjin, North Korea. In the remaining two weeks of December 1959 alone, a total of three trips were made, transporting 2,942 persons to North Korea. Between 1959 and1984, a total of 93,340 persons were relocated from Japan to North Korea. This number included Koreans who had moved from Korea to Japan during the colonial period and their descendants, including family members who had been born in Japan, as well as some 1,830 Japanese spouses; including the descendants of Japanese spouses, the estimate total of about 6,800 Japanese citizens were repatriated to North Korea over the course of this process. Most Koreans who repatriated from Japan to North Korea originated from southern provinces in the peninsula, i.e., today’s South Korea. Reflecting recent declassification of the International Committee for Red Cross papers, scholars have revisited this issue, yet questions remain: how should we understand this phenomenon? In this presentation, Sonia Ryang approaches this question from multiple angles and addresses the issues of power and forms of life.

Registration is free and open to the public.

This event will be recorded and will be available on the Sigur Center YouTube channel after the event.

Speaker

Sonia Ryang was born in Japan to Korean parents and grew up speaking both Korean and Japanese. Ryang received a Ph.D. degree in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University, England, and worked as a Research Fellow at the Research School for Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University, before being appointed as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. Ryang moved to the University of Iowa as an endowed chair of Korean Studies and professor of Anthropology. At Iowa, she directed the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies and also served as the Director of Academic Programs in the University of Iowa International Programs. She came to Rice in 2014 as the Director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies; after six years of directorship, she joined the Department of Transnational Asian Studies, her home department.

She has been elected the President of the Society for East Asian Anthropology (2020-2022).

Sonia Ryang is a social anthropologist by training, having obtained her PhD from Cambridge University in 1995. She began her anthropological career with research on the Korean minority in Japan as her primary focus of investigation. While, in many senses, this field of research continues to constitute the core of her work, she now also concerns herself with a much broader set of conceptual and ontological questions pertaining to human existence, encompassing ethnic minorities, diaspora, totalitarianism, ideology, romantic (and other forms of) love, language, food, and, more recently, science. While her books explore a wide range of themes, they are all underpinned by a desire to explore and elucidate the socio-historical functions and materiality of ideas that humans have created and subjected themselves to through the self-imposition of various rules, codes, and institutions. While this human journey has been marked by countless demonstrations of imagination and ingenuity, it has also witnessed innumerable examples of tragic error and loss. Sonia’s scholarship tries to address these. Thus, it is unequivocally interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary in nature and orientation, combining area studies, literature, history, gender studies, diaspora and transnational studies, philosophy, and ethics, among others. Geographically, she has focused on Korea (North and South) and Japan (the Korean diaspora in Japan) throughout her career. More recently, envisioning the concept of transnational Asia, she has begun to explore the best means by which the boundaries between Asia and Asian America can be undone, for, when viewed from multiple angles, such a distinction is rapidly becoming an artificial one.

With the grant funding by the National Science Foundation (Proposal ID: BCS-1357207) Sonia Ryang has recently finished a project which forms the sequel to her 2012 book on North Korea’s cultural logic, Reading North Korea: An Ethnological inquiry (Harvard University Press, 2012). The book, based on this research, will be published from the University of Hawaii Press in 2021, under the title Reading North Korea. With the Academy of Korean Studies funding (AKS-2020-R24) Sonia Ryang is currently working on a research that reconsiders the repatriation of Koreans from Japan to North Korea (1959 through 1984).

Moderator

Gregg A. Brazinsky works on U.S.-East Asian relations and East Asian international history. He is interested in the flow of commerce, ideas, and culture among Asian countries and across the Pacific. He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Korean. He is the author of two books: Winning the Third World (2017), which focuses on Sino-American Rivalry in the Third World and Nation Building in South Korea (2007), which explores U.S.-South Korean relations during the Cold War. Currently, he is working on two other book projects. The first examines American nation-building in Asia during the Cold War. The second explores Sino-North Korean relations between 1949 and 1992 and focuses specifically on the development of cultural and economic ties between the two countries. He has received numerous fellowships to support his research including the Kluge Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Smith Richardson Foundation junior faculty fellowship, and a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Center. Professor Brazinsky also currently serves as the director of the George Washington Cold War Group.

As director of the Asian Studies Program, Professor Brazinsky has attracted some of the brightest students from around the country and the world who share a commitment to pursuing careers related to Asia. He helped to launch a special mentoring program for Asian Studies MA students and has worked to expand fellowship and professional opportunities for students in the program.

4/17/23 New Books in Asian Studies: “The Migration-Development Regime”

April 3, 2023April 17, 2023Archives & Recordings, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Monday, April 17, 2023

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM ET

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

How can we explain the causes and effects of global migration from the perspective of sending states and migrants themselves? The Migration and Development Regime introduces a novel analytical framework to help answer this question in India, the world’s largest emigrant exporter and the world’s largest remittance-receiving country. Drawing on an archival analysis of Indian government documents, a new database of Indian migrants’ transnational organizations, and unique interviews with poor and elite Indian emigrants, recruiters, and government officials, this book exposes the vital role the Indian state, as well as its poor and elite emigrants, have long played in forging and legitimizing class inequalities within India through their management of international emigration. Since the 1800s, the Indian state has differentially used poor and elite emigrants to accelerate domestic economic growth at the cost of class inequalities, while still retaining political legitimacy. At times, the Indian state has forbidden emigration, at other times it has promoted it. At times, Indian emigrants have brought substantial material inflows, at other times, they have brought new ideas to support new development agendas within India. But throughout, Indian emigration practices have deepened class inequalities by imposing different regulations, acquiring different benefits from different classes of emigrants, and making new class pacts–all while remaining invisible in political and academic discussions on Indian development. On the flip side, since the early 1900s, poor and elite emigrants have resisted and re-shaped Indian development in response to state migration practices. By taking this long and class-based view, this book recasts contemporary migration not simply as a problematic function of “neoliberalism” or as a development panacea for sending countries, but as a long and dynamic historical process that sending states and migrants have long tried to manage. In doing so, it re-defines the primary problems of migration, exposes the material and ideological impact that migration has on sending state development, and isolates what is truly novel about contemporary migration.

Copies of the book can be purchased from Oxford University Press.

Registration is free and open to the public.

This event will be recorded and will be available on the Sigur Center YouTube channel after the event.

Speaker

Rina Agarwala is a Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Agarwala publishes and lectures on international development, labor, migration, gender, social movements, and Indian politics. Agarwala is the author of Informal Labor, Formal Politics and Dignified Discontent in India (Cambridge, 2013) and The Migration-Development Regime: How Class Shapes Indian Emigration (Oxford, 2022), as well as the co-editor of Whatever Happened to Class? Reflections from South Asia (Routledge, 2008, 2016). Agarwala has worked at the United Nations Development Program in China, the Self-Employed Women’s Association in India, and Women’s World Banking in New York. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Government from Cornell University, an MPP in Political and Economic Development from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from Princeton University.

Moderator

Emmanuel Teitelbaum is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. Professor Teitelbaum serves as a managing editor for the Journal of Development Studies. His writings examine class politics and political violence. His academic articles have appeared in leading journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Politics and Society, and the Journal of Development Studies. His book, Managing Dissent: Democracy and Industrial Conflict in Post-Reform South Asia (Cornell University Press), explores the dynamics of state-labor relations and industrial conflict following the implementation of neoliberal economic reforms in India and Sri Lanka. Professor Teitelbaum’s research has received support from the United States Institute of Peace, the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. He was the recipient of the 2007 Gabriel Almond Award for Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and a B.A. from John Carroll University.

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4/12/23 New Books in Asian Studies: China’s Rise in the Global South

March 28, 2023May 18, 2023Archives & Recordings, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

As China and the U.S. increasingly compete for power in key areas of U.S. influence, great power conflict looms. Yet few studies have looked to the Middle East and Africa, regions of major political, economic, and military importance for both China and the U.S., to theorize how China competes in a changing world system.

China’s Rise in the Global South examines China’s behavior as a rising power in two key Global South regions, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Dawn C. Murphy, drawing on extensive fieldwork and hundreds of interviews, compares and analyzes thirty years of China’s interactions with these regions across a range of functional areas: political, economic, foreign aid, and military. From the Belt and Road initiative to the founding of new cooperation forums and special envoys, China’s Rise in the Global South offers an in-depth look at China’s foreign policy approach to the countries it considers its partners in South-South cooperation.

Intervening in the emerging debate between liberals and realists about China’s future as a great power, Murphy contends that China is constructing an alternate international order to interact with these regions, and this book provides policymakers and scholars of international relations with the tools to analyze it.

Copies of the book can be purchased from Stanford University Press.

Registration is free and open to the public.

This event will be recorded and will be available on the Sigur Center YouTube channel after the event.

Speaker

Dr. Dawn Murphy joined the National War College as an Associate Professor of National Security Strategy in 2022. Prior to joining NWC, her academic appointments included Associate Professor of International Security Studies at Air War College, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Princeton (Columbia)-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University.

Murphy specializes in Chinese foreign policy and domestic politics, US-China relations, and international relations. Her research analyzes China’s interests and behavior as a rising global power towards the existing international order. She examines China’s relations with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa in her book China’s Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing’s Alternative World Order (Stanford University Press, 2022). It analyzes China’s foreign policy approach towards the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa regionally (e.g., political, economic, military, and foreign aid) and through detailed case studies of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the China-Middle East Issues Special Envoy, the China-Africa Issues Special Envoy, China’s Special Envoy for Syria, China’s naval base in Djibouti, and China’s Belt and Road initiative.

Dr. Murphy holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and Ph.D. in Political Science from George Washington University.

Discussant

David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and award-winning author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. He is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs, and the founding Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He previously served in the Department of State and on the National Security Council staff during the Carter administration (1977-1979). From 1996-2016 he was also a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. Professor Shambaugh was previously Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Reader in Chinese Politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), 1987-1996, where he also served as Editor of The China Quarterly. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Advisory Board of the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), East-West Center Fellowship Board, is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and member of its Board of Studies, is a participant in the Aspen Strategy Group, and other public policy and scholarly organizations. An active public intellectual and frequent commentator in the international media, he also serves on numerous editorial boards, and has been a consultant to governments, research institutions, foundations, universities, corporations, banks, and investment funds.

He has been selected for numerous awards and grants, including as a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Senior Scholar by the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). He has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, German Marshall Fund, Hinrich Foundation, the British Academy, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and has been a visiting scholar or professor at universities in Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, and he has lectured all over the world.

As an author, Professor Shambaugh has published more than 30 books, including most recently International Relations of Asia (third edition, 2022); China’s Leaders: From Mao to Now (2021); Where Great Powers Meet: America & China in Southeast Asia (2021); and China & the World (2020). Other books include The China Reader: Rising Power (2016); Tangled Titans: The United States and China (2012); China’s Communist Party: Atrophy & Adaptation (2008); Power Shift: China & Asia’s New Dynamics (2005); and Modernizing China’s Military (2002); Making China Policy (2001); The Modern Chinese State (2000); Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory & Practice (1994); American Studies of Contemporary China (1993); and Beautiful Imperialist (1991). He has also authored numerous reports, scholarly articles and chapters, newspaper op-eds, and book reviews. He is reasonably fluent in Chinese, and has some French, German, and Spanish.

Moderator

Gregg A. Brazinsky works on U.S.-East Asian relations and East Asian international history. He is interested in the flow of commerce, ideas, and culture among Asian countries and across the Pacific. He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Korean. He is the author of two books: Winning the Third World (2017), which focuses on Sino-American Rivalry in the Third World and Nation Building in South Korea (2007), which explores U.S.-South Korean relations during the Cold War. Currently, he is working on two other book projects. The first examines American nation-building in Asia during the Cold War. The second explores Sino-North Korean relations between 1949 and 1992 and focuses specifically on the development of cultural and economic ties between the two countries. He has received numerous fellowships to support his research including the Kluge Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Smith Richardson Foundation junior faculty fellowship, and a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Center. Professor Brazinsky also currently serves as the director of the George Washington Cold War Group.

A graphic for Semiconductor Supply Chains

3/22/23 | Taiwan Roundtable | Semiconductor Supply Chains in the Indo-Pacific: The Role of Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan

February 24, 2023April 25, 2023Archives & Recordings, Taiwan RoundtablesLeave a Comment

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM ET Lunch

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET Event

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

The resiliency of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific now poses a central challenge for the U.S. and its partners in the Indo-Pacific. Taiwan’s unparalleled dominance in the global semiconductor industry places it at the forefront of any strategy on semiconductor supply chains. Taiwan, together with South Korea and Japan account for over 90 percent of the world’s semiconductor production.

How well are Taiwan, South Korea and Japan positioned to deal with the ongoing supply chain stresses and what are the economic and security implications to watch for? Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for a discussion bringing together perspectives on these three key players.

Taiwan: Navigating Its Central Role and the Spinoffs

South Korea: Rising Role and Choices

Japan: Japan’s Chip Challenge: Getting Back to the Future

Speakers

Lotta Danielsson is the Vice President of the US-Taiwan Business Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the trade and commercial relationship between the United States and Taiwan.

Ms. Danielsson is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Council. Her work includes membership retention and development, research on current Taiwan policy issues, and research to identify the needs of U.S. businesses in Taiwan. She oversees all member products and services, and manages the development of new value-added membership services. She also oversees all events and conferences, and she has planned the annual U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference – which serves as an important platform for bilateral dialogue on Taiwan’s national security and defense needs – since its inception in 2002. In addition, Ms. Danielsson supervises responses to member requests, prepares press releases, manages websites and social media, and acts as the Council editor. She has served as Vice President since 2003, when she was promoted from Director of Corporate Affairs, a position she had held since joining the Council in 2000.

As a student in the three-year International MBA program (Chinese Track) at the University of South Carolina, Ms. Danielsson spent 19 months studying Mandarin Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan and in Beijing, China. She was a consultant and marketer for the Beijing Sun-King Paper Company, where she worked with the management team to develop new marketing and administrative strategies and to launch a new paper brand into the Beijing market. Prior to entering the MBA program, she was Laboratory Director at New South Associates in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Ms. Danielsson also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Georgia State University. She has lived, studied, and worked in Asia, Europe, and North America, and is a native level speaker of Swedish and English.

Daniel Aum is an Associate at the Institute for Corean-American Studies and a former Harold W. Rosenthal Fellow both with the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation. He was the Senior Director for Public Affairs and Washington D.C. Director at the National Bureau of Asian Research. He served as a fellow with the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He also worked on an international strategic litigation team at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

Mr. Aum has published in political science journals, such as Defence and Peace Economics and North Korean Review, as well as in foreign policy outlets, including The National Interest, The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, South China Morning Post, The National Bureau of Asian Research, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mr. Aum is currently a PhD candidate in international affairs, science, and technology at Georgia Tech. He received his JD from the George Washington University Law School, a Masters in Asian Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and a BA in philosophy from Baylor University.

Jeffrey D. Bean is Program Manager for Technology Policy and Editor at Observer Research Foundation America. He manages research on critical and emerging technologies, particularly semiconductors and 5G, and implements the activities of the Global Cyber Policy Dialogues. Concurrently, as editor, he reviews all research reports and papers ahead of publication for the organization.

Prior to joining ORF America, Mr. Bean was a Visiting Fellow at East-West Center and Tama University, where he conducted research on U.S.-Japan relations and emerging technology supply chain disruption with a focus on semiconductors.

Previously, Mr. Bean was editor of the Asia Policy Blog, CogitAsia, for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he oversaw publications and produced podcasts for the CSIS Asia Programs. In this role, Mr. Bean was responsible for tracking political, trade, technology, and security developments throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Bean worked as a research assistant with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS, where he managed projects that focused on Asian regional cooperation and U.S.-China relations. He is the author of over two dozen articles and reports as well as the producer of nearly one hundred CSIS podcasts on policy issues in Asia.

Mr. Bean holds an M.A. in security policy studies from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs where he was a highest honors fellow and a B.A. in international affairs and political science from James Madison University.

Moderator

Dr. Ollapally is currently working on a funded book, Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indian Ocean Region, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She is the author of five books including Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford, 2012) and The Politics of Extremism in South Asia (Cambridge, 2008). Her most recent books are two edited volumes, Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (Routledge, 2017), and Nuclear Debates in Asia: The Role of Geopolitics and Domestic Processes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).

Dr. Ollapally has received grants from the Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Asia Foundation for projects related to India and Asia. Previously, she was Associate Professor at Swarthmore College and has been a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London and at Columbia University. Dr. Ollapally also held senior positions in the policy world including the US Institute of Peace, Washington DC and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, Diane Rehm Show and Reuters TV. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

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3/21/23: A Hierarchical Vision of Order w/Antoine Roth

February 23, 2023April 25, 2023Archives & Recordings, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

China’s vision for international order is a matter of great global interest. This book analyses China’s efforts to realize this vision in its immediate neighborhood. Using a wide variety of sources, the book provides a historically informed account by examining the legacies of China’s imperial past and traditional political philosophy, discussing how those legacies have continued to inform the country’s foreign policy in the very different context of the modern society of sovereign nation-states. It argues that China today sees the maintenance of order as its own responsibility and that it believes this order needs to attribute different roles to ‘small’ and ‘big’ states to ensure stability. Furthermore, the book explores the different tools China employs to achieve its vision, including a proactive diplomacy, the control of international discourse, threat of punishment for ‘misbehavior’, and the promise of economic benefits in return for compliance.

Speaker

Antoine Roth is an assistant professor at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. His research and teaching focuses on Chinese foreign policy and the international politics of East Asia. He writes a regular column on Sino-Japanese relations for the Tokyo Review. He holds a PhD in international politics from the University of Tokyo and a Master in Asian Studies from George Washington University.

Moderator

Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University (2011-Present ). He also served as Director of the School’s main undergraduate program involving over 2,000 students from 2013-2019. His earlier full-time position was Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University (2001-2011).

A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter has published 22 books (four with multiple editions), over 300 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent book is Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy of an Emerging Global Force, Fifth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).