Wednesday, February 12, 2020
12:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Lindner Commons, Room 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20052
One month after the historic Taiwan elections on January 11, join a distinguished group of experts who will dissect more deeply the domestic and international impacts of the electoral outcome. Come and hear their interpretations and analysis of the extent to which identity, generational changes, party politics, the economy, Chinese sharp power, and other factors played a part in the decisive re-election of President Tsai Ing-wen, and implications.
What do the first 30 days after the elections tell us about what lies ahead in Taiwan, and what it all means for relations with China and the United States, and other regional players?
The Sigur Center for Asian Studies is honored to welcome back Digital Minister Audrey Tang, and experts David G. Brown, Tiffany Ma, and T.Y. Wang to comment on the 2020 Taiwan Elections with Associate Director Deepa Ollapally as moderator.
Agenda
12:00-12:30pm: Registration & lunch
12:30-12:45pm: Keynote speech by the Honorable Audrey Tang, Digital Minister of Taiwan
12:45-12:55pm: Keynote audience Q&A
12:55-1:00pm: Opening remarks by Director Benjamin D. Hopkins, Sigur Center for Asian Studies
1:00-2:00pm: Expert panel moderated by Associate Director Deepa Ollapally, Sigur Center for Asian Studies
- David G. Brown, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
- Tiffany Ma, BowerAsiaGroup
- T.Y. Wang, Illinois State University
2:00-2:30pm: Panel audience Q&A
This event is free and open to the public. The Sigur Center Lecture Series highlights policy-relevant, innovative, and original scholarship about Asia.
@GWUSigurCenter Follow and live-tweet at us for your question to be featured during Q&A!
Audrey Tang (唐鳳) is the Digital Minister of Taiwan. Minister Tang is known for revitalizing the computer languages Perl and Haskell, as well as building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with Dan Bricklin. In the public sector, Minister Tang serves on the Taiwan National Development Council’s open data committee and K-12 curriculum committee; and led Taiwan’s first e-Rulemaking project. In the private sector, Minister Tang works as a consultant with Apple on computational linguistics, with Oxford University Press on crowd lexicography, and with Socialtext on social interaction design. Minister Tang actively contributes to Taiwan’s g0v (“gov-zero”), a vibrant community focusing on creating tools for the civil society, with the call to “fork the government.”
David G. Brown is an Affiliated Scholar of China Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. From 1999-2016, Brown served first as Associate Director of Asian Studies and then as an adjunct professor in the China Studies program at SAIS. Before joining SAIS, he served for over thirty years as a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State Department. His diplomatic career began with an assignment to Taipei and included postings to Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Saigon, as well as tours in Vienna and Oslo. After leaving government, he worked during 1996-1998 as Senior Associate at the Asia Pacific Policy Center, a non-profit institution in Washington, and served as the Chair of the East Asian Area Studies course at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute from 1998 to 2000.
Tiffany Ma is a Senior Director at BowerGroupAsia (BGA), where she manages BGA’s client relationships and engagements. Ma directs analyses and activities designed to advise Fortune 500 companies on public policy issues, regional geopolitics and stakeholder management. She is also a non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, and regularly writes and speaks on China-Taiwan relations, U.S.-China relations, and Asia-Pacific maritime security. She has testified on U.S.-Taiwan relations before the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and has been featured in both U.S. and international media outlets. Ma holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and holds bachelor’s degrees in international relations and psychology from the University of New South Wales.
T.Y. Wang is Professor of Political Science at Illinois State University. He received his BA in Public Administration from National Chung-hsing University, MA in Political Science from National Taiwan University and his PhD in Political Science from State University of New York at Buffalo. He was the Coordinator of the Conference Group of Taiwan Studies (CGOTS) of the American Political Science Association and a visiting professor at Political Science Department, National Chengchi University, Fall of 2005. He is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Asian and African Studies and the Editorial Board of the Taiwanese Political Science Review. Professor Wang’s research focuses on Taiwanese national identity, cross-Strait relations, U.S. policy towards China and Taiwan, and research methodology. He is a prolific author who has been published in numerous scholarly journals; his most recent publications include, “Symbolic Politics, Self-interests and Threat Perceptions: An Analysis of Taiwan Citizens’ Views on Cross-Strait Economic Exchanges.” Professor Wang has received research grants from a variety of foundations, including the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Pacific Cultural Foundation, and the World Society Foundation. He has been frequently invited to conduct lectures and present papers in China, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and the United States.
Deepa Ollapally is Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs. Ollapally specializes in regional security of South Asia, Indian foreign policy, and the role of identity in international relations. Her current research focuses on maritime security in the Indian Ocean and the impact of regional power shifts, and the intersection of security and identity in India-China relations. Her most recent book is Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (2017). Ollapally has received major grants from foundations including the Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, Reuters TV, and the Diane Rehm Show. She holds a PhD in political science from Columbia University.
Patrick M. Cronin is a Senior Advisor and Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Previously, he was the Senior Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense University, where he simultaneously oversaw the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs. Prior to leading INSS, Dr. Cronin served as the Director of Studies at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). At the IISS, he also served as Editor of the Adelphi Papers and as the Executive Director of the Armed Conflict Database. Before joining IISS, Dr. Cronin was Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University beginning in 2011. He also serves as the school’s Director, Program of Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs. A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, he has published 20 books, over 200 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) involved work on Asian and Pacific affairs and US foreign policy for the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
