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7/10/2022 | Building Taiwan Studies Programs in the US: Challenges and Prospects

Sunday, July 10, 2022

4:00  PM – 5:30 PM EDT

Lindner Commons (RM 602)

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E ST NW, Washington, DC 20052

AND Online

In recent years, greater attention has been given to U.S.-Taiwan educational and cultural exchange. In December 2020, the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative was created to expand access to Mandarin Chinese and English language instruction and to deepen educational cooperation between both sides. Several Taiwan Studies centers in the United States have also received increased support to expand Taiwan Studies. Coinciding with the widespread closure of Confucius Institutes in the United States and the continuing political, economic, and security challenges concerning China, Taiwan, and the United States, there is a critical demand among scholars, policymakers, and educators for greater access to Mandarin Chinese language resources and expertise on Taiwan affairs. However, there exists a mismatch between the level of importance Taiwan has to U.S. foreign policy priorities and the level of resources that U.S. educational institutions dedicate to researching and teaching on Taiwan affairs.

The Taiwan Education & Research Program (TERP) and the North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) are co-hosting a hybrid in-person and virtual panel to bring together scholars and administrators of Taiwan Studies programs in the United States for a discussion on the historical and present challenges, trends, and prospects for Taiwan Studies in academic and policymaking communities. The panel will examine the structural, social, and political factors that influence the development of Taiwan Studies programs, and how Taiwan Studies programs can serve as collaborative spaces between scholars, policymakers, and administrators.

This event is free and open to the public and media. A recording of the event will be made publicly available in the days following the event. Additional support for this event is provided by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW East Asia National Resource Center.

 

Panelists

  • Ellen Y. Chang, Director, Arts and Culture Program, Taiwan Studies Program, University of Washington – Seattle
  • Sung-Sheng (Yvonne) Chang, Professor; Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies, University of Texas – Austin
  • Min Zhou, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies; Director, Asia Pacific Center, University of California – Los Angeles
  • Elizabeth Leicester, Executive Director, Asia Pacific Center, University of California – Los Angeles

Moderator

Richard J. Haddock, Program Manager, East Asia National Resource Center; Taiwan Education & Research Program, GW

Speakers

headshot of Ellen Chang

Ellen Y. Chang is the Director of Arts and Culture at the Taiwan Studies Program at the University of Washington and a Ph.D. Candidate in Cinema & Media Studies. As a simultaneous film scholar and art curator/practitioner, her research examines the transactional encounter among contemporary Taiwanese video art/installation, cinema, and popular culture as processes of aesthetic decolonization. Her recent work on sound and audio walks explores more engaged, sensitive, and practical understandings of how audiovisual art reflects (re-)occurring themes of everyday politics across international geographies. She received her B.A. in English from National Central Taiwan University, M.A. in Film Studies from Ohio University, and M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University.

headshot of Sung-sheng Chang

Sung-Sheng (Yvonne) Chang is a professor in the Department of Asian Studies and the Program in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also currently the Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies at UT-Austin. Dr. Chang is the author of Literary Culture in Taiwan: Martial Law to Market Law (Columbia University Press, 2004) and Modernism and the Nativist Resistance: Contemporary Chinese Fiction from Taiwan (Duke University Press, 1993). Dr. Chang is a co-editor of The Columbia Sourcebook of Literary Taiwan (Columbia University Press, 2014) and Bamboo Shoots After the Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan (Feminist Press, 1990). Dr. Chang’s articles have appeared in journals, edited volumes, and anthologies in English and Chinese. Dr. Chang was the President of the Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL) in 1999-2000 and has served on a dozen editorial boards and held offices in scholarly organizations. She received her B.A. from National Taiwan University, M.A. from the University of Michigan, and Ph.D. from Stanford University. She has also taught or visited at National Taiwan University, University of Kansas, National Tsing Hua University, Fu Jen Catholic University, National Cheng Kung University, Xiamen University, and the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Academia Sinica.

headshot of Min Zhou

Min Zhou is Professor of Sociology & Asian American Studies, Walter and Shirley Wang Endowed Chair in U.S.-China Relations & Communications, and Director of the UCLA Asia Pacific Center. She is an internationally renowned scholar in the areas of migration and development, race and ethnicity, entrepreneurship, refugee studies, Asian diasporas, and the sociology of Asia and Asian America. She has published 19 books and more than 200 journal articles and book chapters. She is the author of Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave (1992), The Asian American Achievement Paradox (with Lee, 2015), and editor of Contemporary Chinese Diasporas (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017). Professor Zhou is also co-Editor of the Journal of Chinese Overseas. She was the President of the North American Chinese Sociologist Association, Chair of the Section on Asia and Asian America of the American Sociological Association (ASA), and Chair of the Section on International Migration of ASA. Currently, Professor Zhou is working on four projects: “Immigration, Integration and Social Transformation in the Pacific Rim,” “Inter-group relations and racial attitudes among Chinese locals and African merchants in Guangzhou and Yiwu, China,” “Chinese immigrant transnationalism and hometown development,” and “Highly skilled Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles and Singapore.” She is writing a book (with Shaohua Zhan) on contemporary Chinese and Indian immigrants in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Singapore. She received her B.A. in English from the Sun Yat-sen University in China, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York at Albany.

headshot of Elizabeth Leicester

Elizabeth Leicester is the Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Center at the University of California – Los Angeles. Leicester has a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.A. from Stanford University in East Asian Studies, as well as a C. Phil. in Japanese History from UCLA. She has done research and translations on women and gender in Japan.

Moderator

professional portrait of Richard Haddock

Richard J. Haddock is currently the Program Manager for the East Asia National Resource Center (NRC), which is supported by a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education. He is also a member of the UC Berkeley U.S.-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group, where he is conducting a research project on the current state and future prospects of Taiwan Studies in the United States. He has worked previously at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the National Democratic Institute, the American Institute in Taiwan, and the U.S. Department of State. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University with a focus on digital democracy and e-governance development in the Asia-Pacific. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Central Florida, and M.A. in Asian Studies from The George Washington University.

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7/9/2022 | Looking Ahead: Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific Region

Saturday, July 9, 2022

6:30  PM – 7:00 PM EDT | Dinner Reception

7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT | Roundtable Discussion

Lindner Commons (RM 602)

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E ST NW, Washington, DC 20052

AND Online

As new cooperative measures take shape in the Indo-Pacific through minilateral and multilateral mechanisms led by the United States, what can Taiwan do to integrate further, together with partners or through its own efforts? What are the most pressing challenges in the region and how is Taiwan preparing to meet them? How do the U.S. and major European powers view Taiwan as a partner in their Indo-Pacific strategies?

The Sigur Center and the North American Taiwan Studies Association is co-hosting a hybrid in-person and virtual Roundtable event – with an in-person dinner reception at the Elliott School of International Affairs – to explore these questions with policy and expert views from Taiwan and the United States.

This Roundtable is free and open to the public and media. A recording of the Roundtable will be made publicly available in the days following the event. Additional support for this event is provided by GW East Asia National Resource Center and the Taiwan Education & Research Program.

 

Panelists

Liang-Yu Wang, Deputy Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S.

Bonnie S. Glaser, Director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States

Moderator

Deepa M. Ollapally, Associate Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies

Speakers

portrait of Liang-Yu Wang standing in front of a word map

Liang-Yu Wang (@TECRO_USA) is Deputy Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. (Since Jan. 2021). Wang has a wide range of high-level diplomatic experience across the globe. She was Director General, Bureau de Genève, Délégation Culturelle et Économique de Taipei (2018-Jan. 2021); Deputy Director General, Department of International Organizations, MOFA (2016-2018); Deputy Director, Political Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) (2014-2016). Wang has also held positions of First Secretary, Political Division, TECRO (2011-2014); Section Chief, APEC Task Force, Department of International Organizations, MOFA (2006-2009); Secretary, Political Division, TECRO (2000-2006); and Officer, Department of International Organizations, MOFA (1997-2000).

headshot of Bonnie Glaser with bobbed haircut

Bonnie S. Glaser (@BonnieGlaser) is director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was previously senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser is a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. Glaser has published widely in academic and policy journals, including the Washington Quarterly, China Quarterly, Asian Survey, International Security, as well as in newspapers such as the New York Times and International Herald Tribune. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Glaser received her M.A. with concentrations in international economics and Chinese studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Moderator

Deepa Ollapally, in professional attire against white background

Deepa M. Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, South Asian security, India-China relations, and Indo-Pacific regional and maritime security. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program which tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia. She is the author of five books and is currently working on a manuscript titled Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indo-Pacific, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

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9/8/2022 | The Struggle for Myanmar’s Rivers

Thursday, September 8, 2022

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM EDT (US East Coast) | 2:00-3:30 PM BST (UK) | 4:00-5:30 PM EEST (Finland) | 8:00-9:30 PM ICT (Thailand)

Online via WebEx

About the Event

This event seeks to shed light on this dangerous situation and draw the attention of concerned citizens and policy makers in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia to an ecological crisis of key importance to the region.

This event will be recorded and will be available on the Sigur Center YouTube channel after the event. The event is made possible by the generous support of the Chino Cienega Foundation.

Registration

The event is open to the public. Guests who register for the event will receive details for joining the Webex meeting.

 

Co-Sponsors

Speakers

headshot of Win Myo Thu

U Win Myo Thu is a development practitioner with over 30 year’s working experiences extensively in environmental conservation and rural development. He studied at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) for M.Sc in Rural and Regional Development with the background of B.Sc (Forestry) from Yangon University and Yezin Agriculture Institute. He professionally contributed to the numbers of policy development works such as national communication report on climate change, national biodiversity strategic action plan (NBSAP), national environmental performance assessment, national rural development strategic framework for poverty reduction and Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (MSDP). In addition to these contributions, he has been actively advocating for cancellation of hydropower mega-dams, promotion of renewable energy, improving land tenure security of the poor and indigenous people, and strengthening common platform for civic empowerment in the process of natural resource governance. He directs a local environmental organization, Association of Advancing Life and Regenerating Motherland (ALARM) and is currently a visiting fellow at Oxford University.

headshot of Saw John Bright

Saw John Bright is a scholar-activist and a member of the Karen people from Burma, where he serves as the Head of Water Governance Program with the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN). His research and policy advocacy works focus on fostering inclusive, informed, accountable, and equitable community-based natural resource governance in the conflict areas of Karen State, Burma. Saw John finished his MA in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is currently doing his external PhD program in Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS), Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research is about the Salween Peace Park: Linking Alternative Grassroots-driven water governance to State Transformation Process.

Commentator

headshot of Mira Käkönen

Mira Käkönen is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Studies. Over the past 15 years, she has worked in various research projects on the politics of environment and development in the Mekong Region. Her scholarly work has focused on the political ecology of water, infrastructure and climate change particularly in Laos, Cambodia and the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. She is also a board member of the Siemenpuu Foundation.

Moderator

headshot of Linda Yarr

Linda J. Yarr directs Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA) and is a research professor of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University in Washington, DC. A political scientist and specialist on Southeast Asia, Linda Yarr has for decades fostered academic engagement in international affairs teaching and research with China, Vietnam, Myanmar, and other countries in Asia. She holds an M.A. from Cornell University, an advanced degree in international relations from Sciences Po in Paris, and a B.A. from D’Youville College.

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5/19/2022 | Taiwan’s Quest for International Space: Update on Pandemic Diplomacy and Beyond

Thursday, May 19, 2022

9:00  AM – 10:00 AM EDT

9:00 – 10:00 PM Taiwan Time

Virtual Event via Webex

As the 75th World Health Assembly approaches, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies considers how the evolution of the pandemic and its newest phase impacts Taiwan’s diplomatic space. A virtual Roundtable of experts will examine the pathways that have been open to Taiwan over time to expand its global presence generally, and what lessons pandemic diplomacy holds moving forward. In these unprecedented times, how tenable is China’s continuing blocking of Taiwan’s greater participation in critical multilateral institutions?  

This event is free and open to the public.

Panelists

Jacques deLisle, Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; Director, Center for the Study of Contemporary China

James M. Lin, Assistant Professor, University of Washington

Moderator

Deepa M. Ollapally, Associate Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies

Speakers

Photo of Jacques deLisle

Jacques deLisle‘s research and teaching focus on contemporary Chinese law and politics, including legal reform and its relationship to economic reform and political change in China, the international status of Taiwan and cross-Strait relations, China’s engagement with the international order, legal and political issues in Hong Kong under Chinese rule, and U.S.-China relations. His writings on these subjects appear in a variety of fora, including international relations journals, edited volumes of multidisciplinary scholarship, Asian studies journals, as well as law reviews. DeLisle is also the Director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. 

Photo of James Lin

James M. Lin is a historian of Taiwan and its interactions with the world in the 20th century. His research examines international agrarian development, beginning with rural reform and agricultural science in China and Taiwan from the early 20th century through the postwar era, then its subsequent re-imagining during Taiwanese development missions to Africa, Asia, and Latin America from the 1950s onward. James Lin is the first faculty to be hired as part of the Jackson School’s new Taiwan Studies Program. He holds a Ph.D. in History from University of California at Berkeley. 

Moderator

Deepa Ollapally, in professional attire against white background

Deepa M. Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, South Asian security, India-China relations, and Indo-Pacific regional and maritime security. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program which tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia.

She is the author of five books and is currently working on a manuscript titled Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indo-Pacific, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

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4/25/2022 | Two Generations of Trailblazing Chinese American Women at the ADB

Monday, April 25, 2022 | 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EDT

Hybrid Event:

Lindner Family Commons (1957 E Street, NW, Room 602)

and Online via Zoom

NOTE: All non-GW affiliated attendees attending the event IN-PERSON must comply with GW’s COVID-19 policy in order to attend this event, including showing proof of vaccination and masking indoors. For frequently asked questions, please refer to GW’s guidance

Join us for a special conversation with Ambassador Chantale Wong as she begins her tenure as US Director of the Asian Development Bank. 

How will the Asian Development Bank (ADB) address poverty and climate change amidst evolving regional geopolitics, post-pandemic recovery, and impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Please join us for a special conversation with Ambassador Chantale Wong as she begins her tenure as US Director of the Asian Development Bank with a special appearance by her mentor and predecessor Ambassador Linda Tsao Yang.

Both women have blazed new trails: Linda Tsao Yang, US Executive Director to the ADB from 1993-99, was the first woman and minority representative of the US on the board of a multilateral financial institute, while Chantale Wong is the first out LGBTQ+ woman of color to be appointed to an ambassador-level position in the United States (see full bios below). Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch, USCET’s Executive Chair and a trailblazer in her own right as the first US Ambassador of Asian descent, will lead the conversation, touching on themes of mentorship, overcoming barriers, and the role of the US at the ADB. Audience members in-person and online will be invited to take part in a lively Q&A session at the event.

USCET’s Asian Women Trailblazers series recognizes the contributions of pioneering Asian American women to American society. This series features conversations with trailblazing Asian American women in leadership positions in government service, education, and journalism. Learn more about this series on the USCET website.

Registration

The event is open to the public. Guests who register for the online event will receive details for joining the Zoom meeting.

 

Featuring

Amb. Chantale Wong, US Exec. Director to the ADB

 

Video Introduction by

Amb. Linda Tsao Yang, US Exec. Director to the ADB (1993-99)

 

Presiding

Amb. Julia Chang Bloch, USCET Executive Chair 

 

Speakers

Chantale Wong headshot

Ambassador Chantale Wong has had a long and distinguished career in public service, currently serving as the US Executive Director to the Asian Development Bank in Manila. Wong is the first out lesbian and first LGBTQ+ woman of color appointed to an ambassador-level position in US history, confirmed by the senate in February 2022. Previously, Wong was appointed by President Obama to serve as Vice President for Administration and Finance, and Chief Financial Officer at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Earlier in her career, Wong has held leadership positions at the Office of Management and Budget, Departments of Treasury and Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency, in addition to NASA. Chantale joined the staff of the Asian Development Bank in 1999 as an environmental specialist to ensure the Bank’s assessments complied with their environmental and social policies. She led development and publication of ADB’s first Asian Environment Outlook (2001) and was subsequently appointed by President Bill Clinton to its Board of Directors, representing the US as the Alternate Executive Director. Wong is the founding chair of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL), an organization dedicated to encouraging careers in public service by providing training, workshops, mentors, and work opportunities for young AAPIs. Chantale’s passion in visual storytelling earned her the role of official photographer and videographer of the late Congressman John Lewis, the civil rights icon, as he led annual pilgrimages to Alabama.

Linda Tsao Yang headshot

Ambassador Linda Tsao Yang served as U.S. Executive Director to the board of the Asian Development Bank in Manila from 1993 to 1999. She was appointed by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate in 1993, the first woman and the first minority to represent the United States on the board of a multilateral financial institution. Yang Is Chair Emerita of the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA) based in Hong Kong which she chaired from 2001 to 2014. From 2003 to 2010, she served on the board of the Bank of China (Hong Kong) – one of three banknote issuing banks in Hong Kong – as an independent non-executive director. Earlier in her career, she was the first minority appointed to serve as California’s Savings and Loan Commissioner; she was also the first minority appointed to the board of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension fund in the United States. She was Vice-Chairman of the Investment Committee of the board and was unanimously elected by her fellow board members to the position of Vice President of the Board. Yang was an invited panelist on International Economy at the economic summit led by then President-elect Clinton in Little Rock, Arkansas in December 1992. Ambassador Yang is a long time Board member of the 1990 Institute, a strong supporter of the Spring Bud and Microfinance programs, and is now an honorary Co-Chair of the Institute.

Moderator

Julia Chang Bloch headshot

Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch is founding president of the US-China Education Trust. She was the first US ambassador of Asian descent in US history. She has had an extensive career in international affairs and government service, beginning in 1964 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia and culminating as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal in 1989. From 1981 to 1988, Ambassador Bloch served at the U.S. Agency for International Development as Assistant Administrator of Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance and as Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East, positions appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. She also was the Chief Minority Counsel to a Senate Select Committee; a Senate professional staff member; the Deputy Director of the Office of African Affairs at the U.S. Information Agency; a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and an Associate of the U.S.- Japan Relations Program of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard.

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4/29/2022 | Colloquium on Thirty Years of Tibet-China Dialogue Engagement

Current Perspectives in a Time of Global Realignment

Hosted by the Research Initiative on Multination States (RIMS), Co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, East Asia National Resource Center

Friday, April 29, 2022 | 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT

Harry Harding Auditorium

1957 E St NW Room 213

IN-PERSON ONLY

NOTE: All non-GW affiliated attendees attending the event IN-PERSON must comply with GW’s COVID-19 policy in order to attend this event, including showing proof of vaccination and masking indoors. For frequently asked questions, please refer to GW’s guidance.

Over the past decade, the exploratory Sino-Tibetan dialogue process came to a halt, just as assimilationist policies were accelerated across the region. But despite this sharp turn in China’s approach to Tibet, the preceding three decades of experimental talks between Beijing and the exiled Tibetan leadership nonetheless established a precarious but provisional framework for discussing the longstanding Tibet dispute.

On Friday, April 29, 2022, the Elliott School of International Affairs will host a colloquium to appraise the development and effects of the thirty years of dialogue initiatives between Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government.

Keynote speaker Sikyong Penpa Tsering, elected leader of the Central Tibetan Administration, will address the challenges and potential for dialogue engagement as current political conditions shift and realign.
The panel and roundtable will feature Arjia Rinpoche, abbot of Kumbum Monastery and former vice chairman of the national-level Chinese Buddhist Association in Beijing; Tenzin N. Tethong, former prime minister-in-exile and leader of the Second Tibetan Delegation to Tibet; Xia Ming, professor of political science at CUNY; Yue Gang, associate professor at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; and Anne Thurston, senior research professor at Johns Hopkins University SAIS; with roundtable discussant Joseph Torigian, assistant professor at American University.

Gregg Brazinsky, director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, will make introductory remarks. The colloquium will be moderated by Tashi Rabgey, research professor of international affairs and director of Research Initiative on Multination States (RIMS).

This event is on the record and open to the public.

Doors open at 1.30pm.
Light dinner reception following colloquium at 5pm. 

Keynote Speaker

A black and white headshot of Penpa Tsering

The Honorable Penpa Tsering became the second democratically elected Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration on May 27th, 2021, in an inauguration presided over by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Prior to taking political leadership of the Tibetan exiled government, Mr. Penpa Tsering was a prominent figure in the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile for two decades. After serving as a member of parliament for two terms, he became the Speaker of the Parliament in 2008 and 2016. He was then appointed official Representative for His Holiness the Dalai Lama for North America in Washington DC in 2016. Previously, Mr. Penpa Tsering served as the executive director at the Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre (TPPRC), a research institute in New Delhi. The Sikyong was born in the Bylakuppe Tibetan Settlement in Mysore, India. As a global advocate for Tibet as well as a longstanding leading figure in the exiled government, Mr. Penpa Tsering has been advancing a resolution to the Tibet issue through the Middle Way Approach for three decades.

Opening Remarks

A black and white headshot of Gregg Brazinsky

Gregg Brazinsky (he/him) is Professor of History and International Affairs. He is director of the Asian Studies Program, acting director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and acting co-director of the East Asia National Resource Center. He is the author of two books: Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy and Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War. His articles have appeared in numerous journals including Diplomatic History and the Journal of Korean Studies. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and several other media outlets. He is currently working on two books. The first explores American nation building in Asia–especially Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. The second explores Sino-North Korean relations during the Cold War.

Moderator

A black and white headshot of Tashi Rabgey

Tashi Rabgey is Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School and director of the Research Initiative on Multination States (RIMS). She is also founding director of the Tibet Governance Lab, an incubator for research on policy challenges and innovation in the governance of contemporary Tibet. From 2008-2014, Dr. Rabgey led the development of the TGAP Forum, a research initiative that engaged PRC scholars and official policy researchers in Beijing on questions of Tibet’s governance and policy issues. The academic dialogue process generated new insights on the institutional structure and dynamics of China’s policymaking in Tibet and other regional autonomies. Dr. Rabgey holds law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge and a PhD from Harvard University. She was a Public Intellectual Fellow with the National Committee on US-China Relations from 2011-13 and a visiting scholar at Sichuan University in 2015. Dr. Rabgey is currently working on territoriality and problems of scale in asymmetric states and has recently been a visiting professor at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr (Iraq).

Panelists

A black and white photo of Tenzin N. Tethong

Tenzin N. Tethong served as leader of the Second Delegation of Tibetan Exile Representatives that was invited by Beijing to visit Tibet in 1980. Following these early years of serving the Tibetan government-in-exile, Mr. Tethong was appointed an official Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and served in North America for thirteen years. He was then elected as Kalon (cabinet minister), and then prime minister-in-exile from 1990-95. Prior to his official appointments, Mr. Tethong was cofounder or instrumental in the establishment of major Tibetan institutions in India and the U.S. — from the first educational publication Sheja and the grassroots organization Tibetan Youth Congress, to the US Tibet Committee and the International Campaign for Tibet. Following his extensive government service, Mr. Tethong was a Distinguished Fellow of the Tibetan Studies Initiative and Chair of the Tibetan Studies Committee at Stanford University, as well as a founding member of The Dalai Lama Foundation, through which he worked on advancing the Dalai Lama’s message in the book Ethics for the New Millennium.

A black and white headshot of Arjia Rinpoche

Arjia Rinpoche is a distinguished scholar and one of the most prominent Buddhist teachers to have left Tibet. Recognized as a tulku by the previous Panchen Lama, Arjia Rinpoche served as Abbot of Kumbum Monastery in Amdo while also holding a top-ranking appointment as vice chairman of the PRC National Buddhist Association in Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution, Arjia Rinpoche worked in a forced labor camp for 16 years. In 1998, he went into exile, an experience he has recounted in his memoirs, Surviving the Dragon. After arrival in the United States, Arjia Rinpoche started the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom (TCCW) in Mill Valley, California.  In 2005, he was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as Director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center (TMBCC) in Bloomington, Indiana. Since arriving in exile, Arjia Rinpoche has been actively working for the welfare of both Tibetans-in-exile as well as Mongolians through organizations like the Cancer Care Treatment Center for Mongolian children. He has also been speaking at universities on subjects ranging Buddhist philosophy to the practice of ethics to the history of Mongolia.

A black and white headshot of Xia Ming

Ming Xia is a Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York. He holds a master’s degree from Fudan University and a PhD from Temple University. He was a research fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University and the Asian Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. He was also visiting professor of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University and guest professor at Jishou University in Hunan. Dr. Xia is the author of The Dual Developmental State: Development Strategy and Institutional Arrangements for China’s Transition and The People’s Congresses and Governance in China: Toward a Network Mode of Governance. Dr. Xia is also a special contributor to iSun Affairs based in Hong Kong and has been a columnist for the electronic journal China in Perspective. He writes for the BBC World Service Chinese Branch and is the Associate Editor for the quarterly Chinese journal, The Journal of Modern China Studies. Dr. Xia was one of the producers of an HBO documentary movie and an Oscar-nominee, China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province.

Discussant

A black and white headshot of Anne F. Thurston

Anne F. Thurston spent the past twenty years as a professor in the China studies program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She previously taught in the political science department at Fordham University and later served as the China staff at the Social Science Research Council. Dr. Thurston is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She has worked and traveled widely in China, and authored, co-authored, or edited a number of books, including Enemies of the People: The Ordeal of China’s Intellectuals during the Great Cultural Revolution; The Private Life of Chairman Mao, with Dr. Li Zhisui; The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong, with Gyalo Thondup; and, most recently, Engaging China: Fifty Years of Sino-American Relations. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. 

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4/18/2022 | 50 Years After the Nixon-Mao Summit: Views from Japan, Taiwan, and India

Sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and East Asia National Resource Center

Monday, April 18, 2022 | 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm EDT

Zoom Event

The United States President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to the People’s Republic of China ended 25 years of no communication between the U.S. and the PRC and opened the door to the normalization of relations between the two counties. While normalization did not come about until 1979, the historic meeting between Richard Nixon and the Chairman of the PRC’s ruling Communist Party, Mao Zedong, marked a historic turning point. While much has been made about the impact upon the PRC and the U.S., less attention has been paid to the rippling effects across Asia. To address these effects, we bring together a panel of experts who will discuss the impacts that the summit had upon Japan, Taiwan, and India when it occurred and in the decades following.

This event will be on the record and a recording will be available on the NRC YouTube channel after the event. 

Registration

The event is open to the public. Registered guests will receive details for joining the Zoom meeting.

Speakers

  • Fintan Hoey, Associate Professor of History, Franklin University Switzerland
    • “From the ‘China Shock’ to ‘Duck Diplomacy’: Japan and the Nixon-Mao Summit”
  • James Lee, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
    • “50 Years of the One-China Policy”
  • Tanvi Madan, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Project on International Order and Strategy, Brookings Institution

Opening Remarks

Gregg Brazinsky, Professor of History and International Affairs, Director of the Asian Studies Program, Acting Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies

Moderator

Deepa Ollapally, Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies

 

Speakers

headshot of Fintan Hoey in professional attire

Fintan Hoey, PhD is an Associate Professor of History at Franklin University Switzerland and in 2019 was a Swiss National Science Foundation fellow at the Wilson Center. In 2015 he published, Sato, America and the Cold War: U.S.-Japanese Relations, 1964-1972 with Palgrave Macmillan. This examines a critical time of change in U.S.-Japanese relations, including the ramifications of the burgeoning Sino-American rapprochement under Nixon and Mao. More recently his work has focused on Japanese policies on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and on nuclear power generation.

headshot of James Lee in professional attire

James Lee is a postdoctoral research associate at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), which is based at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 2018 and subsequently held a fellowship in the Max Weber Program for Postdoctoral Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Starting in August 2022, he will be an Assistant Research Fellow (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the Institute of European and American Studies at the Academia Sinica (中央研究院) in Taiwan.

His research interests are at the intersection of international relations, diplomatic history, economics, East Asian Studies, and Classics. He studies grand strategy, geoeconomics, and great power competition in historical periods ranging from ancient Greece to the Cold War to the present day. He is especially interested in U.S. grand strategy in Europe and East Asia, U.S.-Taiwan relations, and the reception of Thucydides in the field of strategic studies. His research has been published in the International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Strategic Studies, the Journal of East Asian Studies, and the Journal of Chinese Political Science.

He is also interested in the policy aspects of U.S.-Taiwan relations. He has written policy briefs on the United States’ One-China policy and the security of Taiwan, and his analysis of Taiwan’s security has been featured in Voice of America, East Asia Forum, and the Ploughshares Fund. He is a member of the U.S.-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group, a program organized by the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley for specialists on Taiwan’s foreign affairs.

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Tanvi Madan is a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program, and director of The India Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Madan’s work explores India’s role in the world and its foreign policy, focusing in particular on India’s relations with China and the United States. She also researches the U.S. and India’s approaches in the Indo-Pacific, as well as the development of interest-based coalitions, especially the Australia-India-Japan-U.S. Quad.

Madan is the author of the book “Fateful Triangle: How China Shaped US-India Relations during the Cold War” (Brookings Institution Press, 2020). Her ongoing work includes a book project on the recent past, present, and future of the China-India-US triangle, and a monograph on India’s foreign policy diversification strategy.

Madan is a member of the editorial board of Asia Policy, a contributing editor at War on the Rocks, and a member of the Australian National University’s National Security College’s Futures Council.

Opening Remarks

portrait of Gregg Brazinsky in professional attire

Gregg Brazinsky (he/him) is Professor of History and International Affairs. He is director of the Asian Studies Program, acting director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and acting co-director of the East Asia National Resource Center. He is the author of two books: Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy and Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War. His articles have appeared in numerous journals including Diplomatic History and the Journal of Korean Studies. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and several other media outlets. He is currently working on two books. The first explores American nation building in Asia–especially Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. The second explores Sino-North Korean relations during the Cold War.

Moderator

portrait of Deepa Ollapally

Deepa M. Ollapally is Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University. She directs the Rising Powers Initiative which tracks foreign policy debates in major powers of Asia and Eurasia.

She is a specialist on Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, Indo-Pacific regional and maritime security, and comparative foreign policy outlooks of rising powers and the rise of nationalism in foreign policy. Ollapally is the author of five books including Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford, 2012). Her current research focuses on maritime and regional security in the Indo-Pacific. She is currently writing a book on Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indo-Pacific. She has won grants from Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Asia Foundation for work related to India and Asia.

Ollapally has held senior positions in the policy world including US Institute of Peace; and National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

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4/14/2022 | Congress, Ukraine and US Hardening Against China – Book Launch of U.S.-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present

The Elliott School of International Affairs New Book Launch Series

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies

The East Asia National Resource Center

Presents

Book Launch: U.S.-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present

Thursday, April 14th, 2022

12:00 pm – 1:15 pm EDT

1957 E ST NW Room 505 and Online via Zoom

NOTE: All non-GW affiliated attendees attending the event IN-PERSON must comply with GW’s COVID-19 policy in order to attend this event, including showing proof of vaccination and masking indoors. For frequently asked questions, please refer to GW’s guidance

Join us for a book talk with Professor Robert Sutter on his book “U.S.-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present

About

The extensively revised fourth edition of Sutter’s major text US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present explains in detail the critical role of American domestic politics in hardening US policy toward China over the past five years. Bi-partisan majorities in Congress seek to defend America against an onslaught of malign Chinese government advances in broad areas of international security, economic statecraft and global governance. Congress exerts unprecedented influence on US China policy. The bi-partisan majorities are much steadier than erratic Donald Trump and Joseph Biden shifting from past disparaging China’s threat to a current tough posture in line with congressional majorities.

Sutter will discuss these findings, reinforced by China’s recent support for Russia in the Ukraine war, as well as some important shortcomings in current American strategy toward China.

 

Registration

The event is open to the public.

Speaker

Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice in International Affairs, The George Washington University

Opening Remarks

Alyssa Ayes, Dean, The Elliott of International Affairs at The George Washington University

Moderator

John W. Tai, Professorial Lecturer, The George Washington University

Speaker

A headshot of Professor Robert Sutter

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). 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.

Opening Remarks

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Alyssa Ayres was appointed dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs and professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University effective February 1, 2021. Ayres is a foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. From 2013 to 2021, she was senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she remains an adjunct senior fellow. Ayres has been awarded numerous fellowships and has received four group or individual Superior Honor Awards for her work at the State Department. She speaks Hindi and Urdu, and in the mid-1990s worked as an interpreter for the International Committee of the Red Cross. She received an AB from Harvard College and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Halifax International Security Forum’s agenda working group, and a member of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group board of directors.

Moderator

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John W. Tai, Ph.D., is a professorial lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. He is also an instructor at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, and a senior language analyst at Leidos, providing support to the U.S. Government. He is a specialist on China’s political developments, science and technology developments, and foreign relations. He also specializes in Taiwan’s internal developments and external relations and teaches a graduate seminar on this subject at the Elliott School. He is the author of various articles and commentaries on Chinese and Taiwan politics and foreign relations, including the book Building Civil Society in Authoritarian China (2015).  

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4/4/2022 | The 25th Annual Gaston Sigur Memorial Lecture with Prasenjit Duara

Worldviews and Planetary Politics: Gardens, Jungles and Oceans

Monday, April 4, 2022

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT

Lindner Family Commons

1957 E ST NW Room 602

NOTE: All non-GW affiliated attendees must comply with GW’s COVID-19 policy in order to attend this event, including full vaccination and masking indoors.

About the Event

Contemporary world politics is structured around the world order of nation-states in turn founded largely upon a Newtonian cosmology and an associated worldview. I develop a conceptual framework around the ‘epistemic engine’ which organizes and circulates the cosmological and institutional structures of Enlightenment modernity. Subsequently, I explore how the imperial Chinese world order– functional until at least the late 19th century–reveals a different cosmology shaping a different world order and politics. I also explore the contemporary PRC view of the world order probing the extent to which its historical experiences can be seen to re-shape the hegemonic epistemic engine. In the final section, I draw from a paradigm of ‘oceanic temporality’ to grasp counter-finalities generated by the epistemic engine on the earth and the ocean itself. Can the counter-flows of social movements allow us to imagine what Katzenstein calls a post-Enlightenment, hyper-humanist cosmology?

Speaker

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Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. He was born and educated in India and received his PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University. He was previously Professor and Chair of the Dept of History and Chair of the Committee on Chinese Studies at the University of Chicago (1991-2008). Subsequently, he became Raffles Professor of Humanities and Director, Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore (2008-2015).

In 1988, he published Culture, Power and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942 (Stanford Univ Press) which won the Fairbank Prize of the AHA and the Levenson Prize of the AAS, USA. Among his other books are Rescuing History from the Nation (U Chicago 1995), Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (Rowman 2003) and most recently, The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future (Cambridge 2014). He has edited Decolonization: Now and Then (Routledge, 2004) and co-edited A Companion to Global Historical Thought with Viren Murthy and Andrew Sartori (John Wiley, 2014). His work has been widely translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and the European languages.

Moderator

Gregg Brazinsky in professional attire

Gregg Brazinsky (he/him) is Professor of History and International Affairs. He is director of the Asian Studies Program, acting director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and acting co-director of the East Asia National Resource Center. He is the author of two books: Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy and Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War. His articles have appeared in numerous journals including Diplomatic History and the Journal of Korean Studies. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and several other media outlets. He is currently working on two books. The first explores American nation building in Asia–especially Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. The second explores Sino-North Korean relations during the Cold War.

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3/22/2022 | “The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China” with the Honorable Kevin Rudd

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Kevin Rudd and David Shambaugh talking and laughing

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT

Lindner Family Commons

1957 E ST NW Room 602

AND Zoom

You are invited to a presentation at GW by Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society, on his new book, The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China.

Elliott School Dean Alyssa Ayres will provide welcome remarks. The presentation will be followed by a conversation between the Honorable Kevin Rudd and David Shambaugh, the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, and International Affairs at GW. The event will conclude with an extensive Q&A with the audience.

Those attending this hybrid event in person will have the opportunity to have the Honorable Kevin Rudd sign a copy of his new book.

Speaker

portrait of Kevin Rudd in professional attire

Kevin Rudd is a former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society. He became President and CEO of Asia Society in January 2021 and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. He is also a leading international authority on China. He began his career as a China scholar, serving as an Australian diplomat in Beijing before entering Australian politics.

Moderator

professional portrait of David Shambaugh with brown background

David Shambaugh is 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. Before joining the GW faculty, Professor Shambaugh taught Chinese politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) and was editor of The China Quarterly.

He also worked at the U.S. Department of State and National Security Council. He served on the board of directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Asia-Pacific Council, and other public policy and scholarly organizations. A frequent commentator in the international media, he sits on numerous editorial boards, and has been a consultant to governments, research institutions, foundations, universities, corporations, banks, and investment funds. Professor Shambaugh has published more than 30 books and 300 articles.

Dr. Shambaugh received his bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from George Washington University, his master’s degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and his doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan.

Opening Remarks

Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School

Alyssa Ayres is Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Dean Ayres is a foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. She was Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she remains an adjunct senior fellow. From 2010 to 2013 Ayres served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia in the Barack Obama administration, where she covered all issues across a dynamic region of 1.3 billion people at the time (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and provided policy direction for four U.S. embassies and four consulates. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Her last book is, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World (OUP, 2018). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

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