Panel Events – Sigur Center for Asian Studies

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[12/02/24] Taiwan Roundtable: Local Partnerships, Global Impact: U.S.-Taiwan Subnational Diplomacy

November 13, 2024December 4, 2024Archives & Recordings, Taiwan RoundtablesLeave a Comment

Monday, December 2nd, 2024

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

Amidst evolving geopolitical landscapes, U.S.-Taiwan relations are developing at multiple levels, with subnational diplomacy emerging as a driving force in transforming local actions into global movements. From setting up new trade offices to developing education exchanges fostered by the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, to making major investments in semiconductor manufacturing and other advanced technologies, state and local actors in the United States and Taiwan are taking active roles in deepening social, political, and economic ties between both sides. At the same time, city and state governments and public agencies in the United States and Taiwan also face challenges in navigating sensitive policy issues, such as managing cross-Strait relations in subnational affairs and countering maligned foreign influence or interference. As local and global issues are increasingly intertwined, it is a critical moment for local actors in the United States and Taiwan to gain deeper understanding on the geostrategic importance of subnational affairs. Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for a timely conversation with a group of experts and practitioners to navigate the triumphs, challenges, and opportunities in store for U.S.-Taiwan subnational relations.

RSVP

Speakers

A picture of Dominik Mierzeejewski, smiling and looking at the camera

Sara Newland is a scholar of local politics in China and Taiwan, and seeks to understand the behavior of local officials as domestic public servants and as actors in international relations. Her research on local governance and public service provision has been published in China Quarterly and Governance. Her new work focuses on subnational diplomacy, and in particular on the role that state and local officials play in the complicated relationships between the U.S., China and Taiwan. Her work on U.S.-Taiwan subnational engagement has been published in Pacific Review, and she is currently working on a book project (with Kyle Jaros) on U.S.-China subnational diplomacy in an era of rising great power competition.

At Smith, Newland teaches courses on East Asian politics, comparative politics and research design. She also runs the East Asian Politics Lab, where Smith undergraduates conduct paid research on the politics of China and Taiwan.

Newland is a member of the U.S.-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group and a fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Previously, she was an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University and a China public policy postdoctoral fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School.

Matt Salmon, a special advisor to Arizona State University, brings extensive experience in international affairs and national policy from his time as a five-term U.S. House of Representatives member and chair of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. At Arizona State University, he uses his deep knowledge of global relations to enhance the university’s international programs. His leadership and expertise in fostering international partnerships have made him a key asset in advancing the university’s global initiatives and reputation. He is a fierce defender of the Constitution and the freedoms we enjoy.

Wen Chyi Chiu graduated from Arizona State University, majored in Journalism and Communications. Wen Chyi Chiu’s specialties are Global Relations, Public Relations and Media Relations. As Chairwoman for Taipei Sister Cities, Taipei Sister Cities received three years in a roll, the Best Sister Cities titles in 2009-2012. Wen Chyi Chiu has been devoting, volunteering, contributing, and serving American, Asian, Taiwanese, and Chinese Communities and Phoenix Sister Cities for over 25 years to promote education, STEM/STEAM, sister schools, police and fire exchanges, youth ambassadors, global friendship, arts, culture, sports, business, solar energy, and high technology. She is the Founding Executive Board Member and President for Global Federation of Chinese Business Woman Arizona Chapter, and she is current Principal of Arizona Chinese Mandarin and Culture Academy, and Executive Director of Taipei Culture Summer Camp. Wen Chyi Chiu received many awards including the Recipient of Southern California and Arizona Outstanding Young Leader Award, US Congress Congressional Recognition for Community Service, Arizona Governor Award for Community Contributions, Outstanding Citizenship Award, Volunteer Medal International Award of Circle of Distinguish Volunteer Global Citizenship Award from Phoenix Sister Cities International, and Phoenix Sister Cities Taipei Sister Cities Volunteer of the Year, among other recognitions.

[9/11/24] Okinawa’s Subnational Diplomacy: Promoting Cooperation and Preventing Conflict in East Asia

September 3, 2024November 19, 2024Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Wednesday, September 11th, 2024

4:00 PM – 5:15 PM ET

State Room

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

and Online

The security and economic environment surrounding Okinawa is becoming more uncertain and worrisome. In response, the Okinawa Prefectural Government recently launched its Subnational Diplomacy initiative to promote cooperation and prevent conflict in East Asia. Governor Denny Tamaki of Okinawa will discuss the basic thinking behind this Subnational Diplomacy, some of the concrete steps taken thus far, and the prospects for the future. Then a panel of prominent experts on Japan, international relations, and security policy will comment on Governor Tamaki’s remarks and assess the opportunities and constraints that Okinawa faces to develop and exert its influence in shaping the regional environment.

Speakers

Governor Denny Tamaki was first elected as Governor of Okinawa in October 2018 and was re-elected again in September 2022 to serve another four-year term. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 2009 to 2018 (4 terms). Prior to that, he was a member of the Okinawa City Assembly from 2002 to 2005. He graduated from Sophia School of Social Welfare. He was born in Okinawa in 1959.

Sheila A. Smith is John E. Merow senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Japanese politics and foreign policy, she is the author of Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China (released in Japanese as 日中親愛なる宿敵: 変容する日本政治と対中政策), and Japan’s New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. She is also the author of the CFR interactive guide Constitutional Change in Japan. Smith is a regular contributor to the CFR blog Asia Unbound and a frequent contributor to major media outlets in the United States and Asia.

Dr. Jennifer Kavanagh is a senior fellow & director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. Kavanagh’s research examines U.S. military strategy, force structure and defense budgeting, the defense industrial base, and U.S. military interventions. Her most recent projects have focused on U.S. defense policy in Asia and the Middle East. Previously, Kavanagh was a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She also worked as a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where, among other roles, she served as director of RAND’s Army Strategy program. Her work has been published in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Washington Quarterly, Lawfare, Los Angeles Times, and War on the Rocks, among other outlets. Kavanagh received an AB in Government from Harvard University and a PhD in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Michigan. She is also an adjunct professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University.

Professor Mochizuki holds the Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Dr. Mochizuki was director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies from 2001 to 2005. He co-directs the “Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific” research and policy project of the Sigur Center. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He was also Co-Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy at RAND and has taught at the University of Southern California and Yale University.

[9/17/24] Deconstructing Racism “Denial” in Asia

September 3, 2024November 19, 2024Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Tuesday, September 17th, 2024

1:15 PM – 3:00 PM ET

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

Join us for a focused discussion on research from the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), exploring the critical intersection of racism and nationalism in Asian contexts. As Asia becomes increasingly central to the global economy and culture, it faces significant challenges, including rising inequality, cultural intolerance, and institutional shortcomings. SNAPL is committed to addressing these issues through interdisciplinary, evidence-based, and policy-relevant research. This event will highlight SNAPL’s discourse analysis of reports submitted by 16 Asian countries to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The research investigates how race and racism are conceptualized in these reports, uncovering patterns of “denial” and exploring how these perspectives align with or diverge from those in other global contexts. The discussion will also examine how historical identities and dominant social, political, and religious values shape national understandings of race in Asia. We aim to foster a deeper understanding of racism, often underdiscussed in the region, and promote the critical dialogue necessary for building a socially and culturally mature “Next Asia.” Two distinguished discussants—Dr. Hiromi Ishizawa from George Washington University and Dr. Erin Aeran Chung from Johns Hopkins University—will join us to share their insights, ensuring a lively and engaging conversation on these pressing issues.

Speakers

Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in Sociology; senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center since 2005; and the founding director of the Korea Program since 2001, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, democracy, migration, and international relations.

Shin is the author/editor of twenty-five books and numerous articles. His recent books include Korean Democracy in Crisis: The Threat of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (2022); The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security (2021); Shifting Gears in Innovation Policy from Asia (2020); Strategic, Policy and Social Innovation for a Post-Industrial Korea: Beyond the Miracle (2018); Superficial Korea (2017); Divergent Memories: Opinion Leaders and the Asia-Pacific War (2016); Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea (2015); Criminality, Collaboration, and Reconciliation: Europe and Asia Confronts the Memory of World War II (2014); New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (2014); Asia’s Middle Powers? (2013); Troubled Transition: North Korea’s Politics, Economy, and External Relations (2013); History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (2011); South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (2011); One Alliance, Two Lenses: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New Era (2010); Cross Currents: Regionalism and Nationalism in Northeast Asia (2007); Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia (2006); and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006). Due to the wide popularity of his publications, many have been translated and distributed to Korean audiences. His articles have appeared in academic and policy journals including American Journal of Sociology, World Development, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Education, International Sociology, Nations and Nationalism, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, Journal of Democracy, and Foreign Affairs.

Shin’s latest book, Talent Giants in the Asia-Pacific Century, a comparative study of talent strategies of Japan, Australia, China, and India, will be published by Stanford University Press in 2025. In Summer 2023, Shin launched the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), which is a new initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia. Across four research themes– “Talent Flows and Development,” “Nationalism and Racism,” “U.S.-Asia Relations,” and “Democratic Crisis and Reform”–the lab brings scholars to produce interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, policy-relevant, and comparative studies and publications. In May 2024, Shin also launched the new Taiwan Program at APARC.

Shin is not only the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, but also continues to actively raise funds for Korean/Asian studies at Stanford. He gives frequent lectures and seminars on topics ranging from Korean nationalism and politics to Korea’s foreign relations and historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia and to talent strategies. He serves on councils and advisory boards in the United States and South Korea and promotes policy dialogue between the two allies. He regularly writes op-eds and gives interviews to the media in both Korean and English.

Before coming to Stanford in 2001, Shin taught at the University of Iowa (1991-94) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1994-2001). After receiving his BA from Yonsei University in Korea, he was awarded his MA and PhD from the University of Washington in 1991.

Junki Nakahara is a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), housed within the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Her research interests include nationalism and xenophobia, critical and cultural studies, feminist (digital) media studies, and postcolonial/decolonial international relations. She earned her PhD in Communication from the School of Communication (2023) and an MA in Intercultural and International Communication from the School of International Service (2019), both at American University. Her publications include contributions to New Media & Society, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, and Discourse Approaches to an Emerging Age of Populism (edited by I. Íñigo-Mora & Lastres-López).

As an inaugural member of SNAPL, she leads the “Nationalism and Racism” research track, focusing on two major projects: (1) Racism “Denial” in Asian State Party Reports to the UN CERD, and (2) Elite Articulation of “Multiculturalism” in Australia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Using a combination of critical discourse analysis and computational textual analysis, the team examines how nationalism and racism intertwine to create various forms of suppression and intolerance across the Asia-Pacific region, where entanglements among race, ethnicity, nation, and postcoloniality complicate the related debates.

About the Discussants

After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professor Ishizawa spent two years as a post-doctoral research associate at the Minnesota Population Center (MPC) at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests are in the areas of social and family demography, immigration, sociology of language, and urban sociology. Her research focuses on the understanding of how immigrants integrate into American society. In particular, her work emphasizes the influence of context, such as family and neighborhood, on the process of integration. She has published work that examines many aspects of immigrant integration, including minority language maintenance, civic participation, health, sequence of migration within family units, intermarriage, and residential settlement patterns among minority language speakers. In addition, she conducts research on another immigrant destination country, New Zealand. Her work focuses on residential segregation and patterns of ethnic neighborhoods among recent immigrant groups and the indigenous Maori population. Additionally, her research project examines life satisfaction among immigrants in Japan.

Erin Aeran Chung is the Charles D. Miller Professor of East Asian Politics and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. She previously served as founding co-director of the Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship (RIC) Program and director of the East Asian Studies Program at Hopkins, and as co-president of the APSA Migration and Citizenship Section.

Professor Chung specializes in East Asian political economy, comparative citizenship and migration politics, civil society, and comparative racial politics. She is the author of Immigration and Citizenship in Japan (Cambridge, 2010, 2014; Japanese translation, Akashi Shoten, 2012) and Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies (Cambridge, 2020), which received the 2021 ASA Asia and Asian America Section Transnational Asia Book Award, Honorable Mention for the 2021 APSA Migration & Citizenship Section Book Award, and the 2021 Research Excellence Award from the Korea Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea. She was awarded a five-year grant from the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) to support the completion of her third book project on Korean Diasporic Citizenship: Three Tales of Political (Dis)Incorporation in the United States, Japan, and China.

Professor Chung is currently serving as co-editor of the Politics and Society of East Asia Elements series at Cambridge University Press and as founding co-director of the Initiative on Critical Responses to Anti-Asian Violence (CRAAV) at Hopkins. She has been a Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Program Scholar, an SSRC Abe Fellow at the University of Tokyo and Korea University, an advanced research fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and a Japan Foundation fellow at Saitama University. At Hopkins, Professor Chung teaches undergraduate courses on Japanese, Korean, East Asian, and Asian American politics and graduate courses on civil society, citizenship and immigration politics, the political economy of development, democratization, and comparative racial politics.

[9/3/24] China’s Belt and Road and the Global South – Importance Today

August 16, 2024November 19, 2024Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

China’s growing ambitions in the so-called Global South center on Beijing’s Belt and Road and related policy initiatives. A team of four European experts on these matters is visiting Washington led by Professor Dominik Mierzejewski of the University of Lodz, a widely published scholar well known for on-the-ground assessments of China’s Belt and Road efforts throughout the Global South and Europe. He and his team will offer their findings on recent in-person investigations in eight countries: Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Kenya, Poland, South Africa, Serbia, and Thailand.

Sigur Center Director and Professor Eric Schluessel will serve as discussant.

Speakers

Dominik Mierzejewski is the head of the Centre for Asian Affairs (a university-based think-tank) and Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the University of Lodz. His research focuses on the rhetoric of Chinese diplomacy, the PRC’s political transformation, and the provinces’ role in Chinese foreign policy. He is the author of China’s Provinces and the Belt and Road Initiative (Routledge 2021).

A picture of Jaroslaw Jura smiling and looking at the camera

Jarosław Jura is an Assistant Professor at Lazarski University (Warsaw, Poland). His research interests focus primarily on Chinese expansion in Africa and social sciences methodology. He has conducted field research in Angola, Zambia, Kenya, Sudan, and China.

A picture of Bartosz Kowalski smiling and looking at the camera

Bartosz Kowalski is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Asian Studies at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, Poland, and a researcher at its Centre for Asian Affairs at the University of Lodz. His research focuses on China’s foreign policy, relations between China and Central Europe, and the modern political history of Xinjiang.

Mario Esteban Rodrigez smiling and looking at the camera

Mario Esteban Rodriguez is a Senior Analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute and Senior Lecturer at the Centre for East Asian Studies of the Autonomous University of Madrid. His research focuses on China’s foreign aid in the Global South and China’s relations with the European Union.

Moderator

Eric Schluessel is a social historian of China and Central Asia, and his work focuses on Xinjiang (East Turkestan) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Co-Director of the East Asia National Resource Center, and an Associate Professor of History and International Affairs. Land of Strangers, his first monograph, uses local archival and manuscript sources in Chinese and Chaghatay Turkic to explore the ramifications of a project undertaken in the last decades of the Qing empire to transform Xinjiang’s Turkic-speaking Muslims into Chinese-speaking Confucians. Schluessel previously taught at the University of Montana in Missoula and spent the 2018–2019 academic year as a Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Schluessel has also completed a translation and critical edition of the Tārīkh-i Ḥamīdī of Mullah Mūsa Sayrāmī, which is an important Chaghatay-language chronicle of nineteenth-century Xinjiang.

Taiwan Relations @45 Years and Counting

April 19, 2024November 19, 2024Archives & Recordings, Taiwan RoundtablesLeave a Comment

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Lunch: 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Panel: 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

The landmark Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) was signed into law by the United States Congress and serves as a foundation for US-Taiwan relations, and guides bilateral and broader policymaking toward the region. As the TRA celebrates 45 years, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies is holding a Roundtable to take stock. How has the TRA’s meaning and interpretation changed over time? What do the US executive and congressional positions on the Act look like? To what extent does the TRA come into play in cross strait relations?

*Guests are highly encouraged to tour the photography collection at the second-floor atrium of the Elliott School

“Interpreting the Taiwan Relations Act Over Time”, Vincent Wang

“US Congressional and Presidential Views on TRA@45”, Ryan Hass

“The TRA and its Role in Cross Strait Relations, Raymond Kuo

Opening Remarks

A picture of Yaqiu Wang smiling and looking at the camera

Alexander Yui has been the Representative for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States since December of 2023. He has previously served as the Representative to the European Union, the Vice minister of Foreign Affairs, the Director-General of the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs, as well as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Paraguay. He has a BA in Political Science and Modern Languages as well as an MA in Spanish Literature from Texas A&M University. He also attended Executive programs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2002 as well as The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics in 2010.

Speakers

Vincent Wei-Cheng Wang is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Adelphi University. Wang formerly served as Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College. He was formerly a Professor of Political Science and Chairman of the Department at the University of Richmond, specializing in international political economy and Asian studies. He has been a Visiting Professor or Fellow at National Chengchi University (Taipei), National Sun-Yat-sen University (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), El Colegio de Mexico, and Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Kyungnam University (Seoul, South Korea). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is a first-generation college student and received his BA from National Taiwan University and MA from Johns Hopkins University.

Chiaoning Su smiling and looking at the camera

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 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.

Prior to joining NSC, Hass served as a Foreign Service Officer in U.S. Embassy Beijing, where he earned the State Department Director General’s award for impact and originality in reporting, an award given annually to the officer whose reporting had the greatest impact on the formulation of U.S. foreign policy. Hass also served in Embassy Seoul and Embassy Ulaanbaatar, and domestically in the State Department Offices of Taiwan Coordination and Korean Affairs. Hass received multiple Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor commendations during his 15-year tenure in the Foreign Service.

Hass is the author of “Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence” (Yale University Press, 2021), a co-editor of “Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World” (Brookings Press, 2021), of the monograph, “The future of US policy toward China: Recommendations for the Biden administration” (Brookings, 2020), and a co-author of “U.S.-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis?” (Brookings Press, 2023). He also leads the Democracy in Asia project at the Brookings Institution and is co-chair of the international task force on Taiwan convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hass was born and raised in Washington state. He graduated from the University of Washington and attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies prior to joining the State Department.

Shelley Rigger speaking at an event with hand gestures

Raymond Kuo is the inaugural director of the RAND Corporation’s Taiwan Policy Initiative and a senior political scientist at RAND. He is an expert in international security, international order, and East Asia.

He published two books in 2021: Following the Leader (Stanford University Press) on military alliances and Contests of Initiative (Westphalia-GMU Press) on China’s maritime gray zone strategy. His other research has appeared in International Security, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, The National Interest, the Diplomat, and other outlets.

Kuo was a tenure-track professor at Fordham University and the University at Albany, SUNY. He previously worked for the United Nations, the National Democratic Institute, and the Democratic Progressive Party (Taiwan). He holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University.

Moderator

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.

[4/30/24] Updates and Forecast on Corporate Crimes in Asia

April 9, 2024November 19, 2024Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

1:00 pm – 2:40 pm

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

Corporate fraud is a growing problem across the world. In response to this situation, more governments have enforced anti-fraud legislation. In Asia, not a few regional authorities tightened their penalties for fraudulent behaviours, governance codes continue to evolve to ensure responsible management in each country, and proxy advisory institutions and elevated the proxy voting guidelines to strengthen corporate governance, and thus, deter fraud. However, these efforts have not yet resulted in a reversal of trends. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, prolonged periods of remote work weakened the governance for fraudulent behaviour, which led to an increase in opportunities for fraud, particularly cybercrime. Corporate fraud can have devastating consequences, and hence, fraud prevention is crucial.

Today, GW visiting scholars from Korea and Japan share the updates and forecast on corporate crimes, aiming to provide meaningful insights for preventing fraud in Asia. Specifically, Seongkwang Seo provides legal perspectives given his prosecutor experience, and Asuka Takaoka argues academically and professionally.

Agenda:

13.00-13.10 Welcoming and introduction by Hiromi Ishizawa

13.10-13.40 Presentation by Seongkwang Seo

13.40-13.55 Q&A

13.55-14.25 Presentation by Asuka Takaoka

14.25-14.40 Q&A

14:40-14.45 Closing by Hiromi Ishizawa

Speakers

Asuka Takaoka has a wealth of consulting experience spanning the globe. For the past thirteen years, she has been a management consultant at the Frankfurt and Tokyo offices of McKinsey & Company, as well as a human resources consultant in London and Tokyo. Most recently, she took on a regional role in Asia for the assessment practice at Willis Towers Watson, a leading human resources consulting firm. With expertise in CEO succession planning, executive assessment and development, and board effectiveness, she holds qualifications from the British Psychological Society, Hogan Assessments, SHL OPQ, and Saville Assessment.

At GLOBIS University, she lectures for courses such as Leadership Development, Ethics, and Values. She also researches corporate governance as a visiting scholar at George Washington University in the United States. She is the founder and CEO of Bancho Board Advisory Co., Ltd.

Seongkwang Seo is a prosecutor of South Korea. After passing the bar exam in 2009 and training at the Judicial Training Institute for two years, he joined the prosecutor’s office in 2011. He has worked for 13 years in various district prosecutors’ offices, and is currently working at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office.

He has experience in investigating various crimes, including public security cases (election crimes, illegal political fund crimes, etc), corporate crime cases, bribery cases, sexual crimes, and economic crimes. He is also experienced in maintaining the prosecution of the various cases mentioned above at trial. In particular, he specializes in election crimes and political fund crimes in the field of public security investigation, and has been working in the public security investigation department for many years.

In recognition of his contributions as a prosecutor, he was awarded the Minister of Justice’s Commendation for Public Security Affairs in 2017. He also received the Prosecutor General’s Award for Exemplary Prosecutor in the second half of 2019 and the Prime Minister’s Commendation for Prosecutorial Affairs in 2021.

Based on his experience as a prosecutor, he is going to research the latest U.S. cases and scholarship on the admissibility of evidence for electronic file documents created on computer or other electronic devices, a topic that has become increasingly important in recent years.

Moderator

[3/21/24] Taiwan’s Elections and Reflections: What Does the Transition Path to May 2024 Tell Us?

March 4, 2024October 24, 2024Archives & Recordings, Taiwan Conference SeriesLeave a Comment

Thursday, March 21, 2024

10:30 AM – 2:00 PM ET

State Room

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won an unprecedented third term in January 2024 in a tight 3-way race. As President-elect Lai Ching-te readies the transition to inauguration on May 20, what are we learning about key policy issues at home and abroad?

What does the new political environment suggest for Taiwan’s democracy and identity? What lessons can we learn from Chinese tactics related to the elections? How are policies being shaped on Taiwan’s security front, especially on cross strait relations and what are the chances for improving Taiwan’s diplomatic reach?

Join the Sigur Center as top experts debate and discuss these looming questions.

Panel One: New Political Environment & Implications at Home (10:30 am-12:00 pm)

China’s Tactics and Taiwan’s Election Integrity, Yaqiu Wang, Freedom House

Changing Party Politics, Chiaoning Su, Oakland University

Identity Politics and the Electorate, Shelley Rigger, Davidson College

Moderator, Alexa Alice Joubin, GWU

Lunch (12:00-12:30 pm)

Panel Two: New Political Environment & Foreign Policy Implications (12:30-2:00 pm)

Outlook on Cross Strait Relations, Jennifer Kavanagh, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Directions in US-Taiwan Ties, James Lee, Academia Sinica

Taiwan’s Prospects for Greater International Space, Jacques deLisle, The University of Pennsylvania

Moderator, Deepa Ollapally, GWU

Speakers

Yaqiu Wang (pronounced Ya-cho) is Research Director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, leading the organization’s research on human rights issues within China and the Chinese government’s global influence.

Prior to joining Freedom House, Wang was Senior China Researcher at Human Rights Watch, working on issues including internet censorship, protection of human rights defenders, and women’s rights. She has also written extensively on the Chinese government’s role in undermining human rights globally and multinational corporations’ complicity in human rights violations in China. Before Human Rights Watch, Wang worked on press freedom issues in China and other Asian countries for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Wang was born and grew up in China, and has a MA degree in International Affairs from George Washington University. She has testified before US Congress, and is frequently quoted by major news outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, and appeared on CNN, NBC, NPR, and BBC.

Chiaoning Su is an associate professor in Communication, Journalism and Public Relations at Oakland University. She also serves as the director of the Public Relations program and the Klein Center for Culture and Globalization, as well as PRSSA’s academic advisor. Beyond OU, Su served as the 2018-2020 President of the Association for Chinese Communication Studies, and the non-resident fellow of the Taiwan NextGen Foundation. Su received her Ph.D. in media and communication from Temple University in 2015. Her research focuses on two distinct yet interconnected research lines: journalism of crisis and journalism in crisis. While the first line examines the representation and production of crisis news, the second focuses on journalism in public life during an era of waning democracy. Her work has been published in Media, Culture and Society, International Journal of Communication, Asian Journal of Communication, and Taiwan Journal of Democracy, and Communication Review. She is the recipient of the 2020 Honors College Inspiration Award and the 2021 Teaching Excellence Award at Oakland University. Prior to her academic career, Su worked as a communication specialist at Ogilvy Public Relations and for several political campaigns in Taiwan. Through these professional experiences she developed expertise in media pitches and crisis management. In recent years, her research attracted increasing international media attention. AlJazeera, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Asia, and Voice of America have interviewed her on U.S.-China-Taiwan relations, press freedom in East Asia, China’s wolf warrior diplomacy, and Taiwan’s nation branding. Additionally, she appeared on several Taiwanese radio programs to discuss strategic narratives to amplify Taiwan’s international visibility. In her leisure time, Su likes to travel and read. She is always in search for a good story and the hidden messages behind the narratives.

Shelley Rigger is the Brown Professor of Asian Studies. She teaches courses on East Asian Politics, including domestic politics of East Asian countries and the international relations of the region. Rigger’s research and writing focuses on Taiwanese politics and on the relationships among the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan. In 2019-2020 she was a Fulbright scholar at National Taiwan University in Taipei, studying the political and social views of Taiwanese youth. She’s been a visiting professor at two universities in the People’s Republic of China: Fudan University (2006) and Shanghai Jiaotong University (2013 & 2015), and was a visiting researcher at National Chengchi University in Taiwan in 2005. Rigger is also non-resident fellow of the China Policy Institute at Nottingham University and a senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). She also interacts frequently with US government officials, especially in the Taiwan policy field. I’ve held a number of administrative posts at Davidson College; Rigger currently serves as the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty. She is also a director of The Taiwan Fund, a closed-end investment fund specializing in Taiwan-listed companies. Rigger has written two academic books on Taiwan’s domestic politics — Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (Routledge 1999) and From Opposition to Power: Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2001) – as well as two books for general readers – Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse (2011) and The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China’s Economic Rise (2021). She has published articles on Taiwan’s domestic politics, the national identity issue in Taiwan-China relations, generational politics in Taiwan, and related topics. Rigger has also published items in the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog.

Jennifer Kavanagh is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A political scientist by training, she has spent her career studying national security threats and their consequences for U.S. foreign policy and defense strategy. At Carnegie, Kavanagh’s research explores dynamics in contemporary geopolitics, with a focus on relationships between major powers, including the United States, European Union, Russia, and China. In addition to examining the types of power and influence that matter most in international system, Kavanagh’s work considers the domestic political foundations of geopolitical trends and analyzes possible future trajectories and their implications. Prior to joining Carnegie, Kavanagh was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where she led projects focused on deterrence, military interventions, and U.S. military posture for defense and national security clients. She was most recently director of the Strategy, Doctrine, and Resources Program in RAND’s Arroyo Center, which supports the U.S. Army. Kavanagh also co-authored Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life, and co-founded and led RAND’s Countering Truth Decay Initiative, a portfolio of projects focused on polarization, disinformation, and civic development in the United States. Kavanagh received an AB in government from Harvard University and a PhD in political science and public policy from the University of Michigan. She is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University.

A picture of James Lee, smiling and looking at the camera

James Lee is an Assistant Research Professor at the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica, the national academy of Taiwan. He is also an affiliated researcher of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) of the University of California system and a collaborator of Canada’s Network for Strategic Analysis. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 2018, and he has previously held research positions at the European University Institute in Florence, the University of California, San Diego, and the NATO Defense College in Rome. Lee’s research in strategic studies is at the intersection of political science and diplomatic history, with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the security of Taiwan. He is one of the principal investigators on the “American Portrait” project, an annual survey of public opinion in Taiwan on U.S.-Taiwan relations. His research has been published in Business and Politics, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Strategic Studies, the Journal of East Asian Studies, and the Journal of Chinese Political Science. Lee is also a policy analyst of U.S.-Taiwan relations, with publications in outlets such as Le Rubicon, Global Asia, the Network for Strategic Analysis, and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. His working languages are English, Mandarin, French, Italian, and German.

Jacques deLisle is the Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. His 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, and Asian studies journals, as well as law reviews. DeLisle is also professor of political science and former Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Penn and director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He has served frequently as an expert witness on issues of P.R.C. law and government policies and is a consultant, lecturer and advisor to legal reform, development and education programs, primarily in China.

Moderators

Alexa Alice Joubin is Professor of English, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, International Affairs, East Asian Languages & Literatures, and Theatre. She co-directs the Taiwan Education & Research Program and is an affiliate faculty at the Institute for Korean Studies. She is the inaugural recipient of the bell hooks Legacy Award and holder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award.

[2/2/2024] Historical, Cultural, and Linguistic Approaches to Elections in Southeast Asia

January 17, 2024October 24, 2024Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Friday, February 2, 2024

3:00 – 5:30 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

As Benedict Anderson once observed, “normal voting is in many ways a peculiar activity”:

One joins a queue of people whom one does not typically know, to take a turn to enter a solitary space, where one pulls levers or marks pieces of paper, and then leaves the site with the same calm discretion with which one enters it – without questions being asked. It is almost the only political act imaginable in perfect solitude, and it is completely symbolic.

With alarm bells ringing in recent years about democracy’s decline, the election experience is more closely watched than ever. But how just much can elections tell us? The panelists in this session consider historical, linguistic and cultural contexts as a means of exploring the diverse ways in which electoral practices are framed, interpreted and enacted in one of the most richly varied regions of the world: Southeast Asia. With experts presenting case studies from Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, scholars will not only ask how the elections are events that point to the future, but also how they presuppose cultural assumptions rooted in the past.

Day and time: Feb 2, 3-5:30, with a reception to follow.

“Sins of the Father: Elections and Accountability in the Philippines” Sheila Coronel, Toni Stabile Professor of Practice in Investigative Journalism, Columbia University

“Religion and Gender in Myanmar’s 2015 and 2020 Elections” Khin Lay, Founding Director, Triangle Women Association and Christina Fink, Professor of International Affairs, the George Washington University

“Fear and Survival: Cambodia’s Elections Since 1993” Sebastian Strangio, Southeast Asia Editor, The Diplomat

“Public Participation in Vietnam: Invited and Claimed Spaces” Andrew Wells-Dang, Senior Expert in Southeast Asia, the United States Institute of Peace

“Who’s Afraid of May 13? Malaysia and the ‘Ghost’ of the 1969 Race Riot” Janet E. Steele, Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the George Washington University

“Language Use and Voter Experience: Some Examples from Indonesia” Joel Kuipers, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, the George Washington University

Speakers

Sheila Coronel began reporting in the Philippines during the twilight of the Marcos dictatorship, when she wrote for the underground opposition press and later for mainstream magazines and newspapers. As Marcos lost power and press restrictions eased, she reported on human rights abuses, the growing democratic movement and the election of Corazon Aquino as president.

In 1989, Coronel and her colleagues founded the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. Under Coronel’s leadership, the Center became the leading investigative reporting institution in the Philippines and Asia. In 2001, the Center’s reporting led to the fall of President Joseph Estrada. In 2003, Coronel won Asia’s premier prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Coronel has written and edited more than a dozen books on the Philippines, freedom of information and investigative journalism. She has trained journalists around the world and written investigative reporting textbooks for journalists in Southeast Asia and the Balkan region. She speaks frequently at international investigative reporting conferences and writes about global investigative journalism.

Coronel joined the faculty of the Journalism School in 2006, when she was named director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. In 2011, she received one of Columbia University’s highest honors, the Presidential Teaching Award.

Coronel believes we are in a pivotal moment for investigative reporting, one that is ripe with opportunity but also fraught with challenges and threats. Coronel’s work outside of the Journalism School reflects her desire to build strong institutions that support free and independent reporting in a turbulent media landscape. She is chair of the Media Development Investment Fund board. She also sits on the boards of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Columbia Journalism Review, ProPublica and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She is also a member and former board chair of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Her recent work is on the populist Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and police abuses in the war on drugs.

Khin Lay is a women’s rights activist and the founding director of Triangle Women Organization. She is dedicated to promoting the status of women in Myanmar through individual empowerment and legal and policy reforms. Her organization works to build women’s capacity to assume leadership roles in politics and public life. After the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, Khin Lay and her family went into hiding and eventually escaped Myanmar. Since then, she has worked to support the democracy movement and continues to provide direct support to women who face increased threats of sexual and gender-based violence under the military junta. In 2022, she was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, and she established the Women’s Advocacy Coalition-Myanmar together with other prominent women leaders. The coalition seeks to promote gender equity in the democracy movement and in the on-going political negotiations around Myanmar’s future. Before establishing Triangle Women Organization, Khin Lay was a prominent political activist and youth leader for the National League for Democracy. She has also held numerous other roles, including as an Eisenhower Fellow, a chair of the Access To Justice Initiative, a steering committee member of Women’s Organization Network, the Country Coordinator for Freedom House, and a Program Consultant on Gender and Land Rights for Landesa Rural Development Institute. She holds a BA and MSc from Yangon University.

Christina Fink joined the Elliott School in 2011 as an associate professor in the International Development Studies Program. Since 2022, she has also been serving as the Director of the BA and BS in International Affairs Program.

She received her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

She has combined research, teaching, and international development work throughout her career. Primarily based in mainland Southeast Asia from 1995-2010, her full-time positions and program evaluation consultancies addressed civil society capacity building in Myanmar with particular attention to gender and social inclusion, and political, economic, and social reforms. During this time, she also wrote Living Silence in Burma: Surviving Under Military Rule (Zed Books: 1st edition 2001, 2nd edition 2009) and served as a lecturer and program associate at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Thailand.

In recent years she has contributed to the development of the GenderPro capacity-building and credentialling program run by GW’s Global Women’s Institute in partnership with UNICEF. She also served on the United States Institute of Peace senior study group on Myanmar which produced two reports: China’s Role in Burma’s Internal Conflicts (2018) and Anatomy of the Military Coup and Recommendations for the US Response (2022).Her latest publications have addressed the position of religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, anti-Muslim violence and the role of Facebook, and the many facets of civil society engagement in development in Myanmar.

Sebastian Strangio is Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat.

In 2008, he began his career as a reporter at The Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia, and has since traveled and reported extensively across the 10 nations of ASEAN. Sebastian’s writing has appeared in leading publications including Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The New York Times, The Diplomat, and Nikkei Asian Review, among many others. He is the author of “Hun Sen’s Cambodia” (Yale, 2014), a path-breaking examination of Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and “In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century“ (Yale, 2020).

Alongside his journalistic work, Sebastian has also consulted for a wide variety of economic risk firms and non-government organizations, and is quoted frequently in the international media on political developments in Southeast Asia. Sebastian holds a B.A. and Master’s degree in international politics from The University of Melbourne. He currently lives in Adelaide.

Dr. Andrew Wells-Dang leads the Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative at USIP and contributes to other projects on Southeast Asia. Dr. Wells-Dang joined USIP following over 15 years of experience with international nongovernmental organizations in Vietnam, including as Oxfam’s senior governance advisor and Catholic Relief Services’ country representative. He has also worked in China, Cambodia, and Laos. In these roles, he designed and led programs in education, disability rights, UXO/landmine risk reduction, environmental and health policy advocacy, and judicial reform with a range of Vietnamese governmental and non-state partners.

Dr. Wells-Dang’s Washington experience includes his most recent role as deputy director for advocacy strategy and learning at CARE USA and Washington representative for the Fund for Reconciliation and Development. His research interests include U.S.-Vietnam relations, war legacies, land rights, civil society and governance.

Dr. Wells-Dang holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Birmingham and a master’s in social change and development from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of Civil Society Networks in China and Vietnam (Palgrave Macmillan). He is fluent in Vietnamese and proficient in Mandarin, French, and German.

Janet Steele, smiling and looking at the camera

Janet Steele is professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs, and the interim director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. She received her Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University, and focuses on how culture is communicated through the mass media.

Dr. Steele is a frequent visitor to Southeast Asia where she lectures on topics ranging from the role of the press in a democratic society to specialized courses on narrative journalism. Her book, “Wars Within: The Story of Tempo, an Independent Magazine in Soeharto’s Indonesia,” focuses on Tempo magazine and its relationship to the politics and culture of New Order Indonesia. “Mediating Islam, Cosmopolitan Journalisms in Muslim Southeast Asia,” explores the relationship between journalism and Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Awarded two Fulbright teaching and research grants to Indonesia and a third to Serbia, she has served as a State Department speaker-specialist in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, the Philippines, East Timor, Taiwan, Burma, Sudan, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Kosovo. The author of numerous articles on journalism theory and practice, her 2014 book, “Email Dari Amerika,” (Email from America), is a collection of newspaper columns written in Indonesian and originally published in the newspaper Surya. Her most recent book, forthcoming in October 2023, is called “Malaysiakini and the power of independent media in Malaysia.”

Dr. Kuipers is a linguistic anthropologist interested in the role of language in the description and interpretation of social life, particularly how authoritative discourse shapes institutionally defined activities in clinics, courtrooms, classrooms and religious settings. He is Director of GW’s Discourse Laboratory.

In 1978, Dr. Kuipers began nearly three years of ethnographic and linguistic research into a distinctive style of poetic ritual speech among the Weyewa people of the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba. Through intensive recording, transcription and analysis of ritual performances, he examined how the mastery and use of a parallelistic style of ceremonial discourse established the cultural authority of individuals, lineages and sacred spaces. Beginning in 1990’s, he analyzed the role of language ideologies in the rapid decline of ritual speech on Sumba, and the rise of the Indonesian national language as the language political and religious authority. Since 2000, he has carried out extensive video ethnographic analyses of the use of authoritative language in psychiatric clinics, Indonesian courtrooms, and U.S. science classrooms.

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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

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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.

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.