Panel Events – Sigur Center for Asian Studies

[3/4/2025] Taiwan Roundtable: Bills, Budgets, and Brawls: Understanding Taiwan’s Legislative Crisis

February 14, 2025February 14, 2025Upcoming EventsLeave a Comment

Tuesday, March 4th, 2025

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan has long been characterized by intense partisan competition, high-stakes negotiations, and, at times, dramatic confrontations. Recent legislative crises—including controversial cuts and freezes to the operating budgets of several ministries—have highlighted the complex interplay between budgetary politics, institutional constraints, and evolving party dynamics, raising critical questions about the resilience and functionality of Taiwan’s democratic system and constitutional order. At the same time, civil society groups, open-government advocates, and civic tech communities in Taiwan have played active roles in developing participatory mechanisms and transparency tools meant to enhance public engagement and citizen oversight in legislative affairs, but face a variety of resource and outreach constraints. The current legislative dilemma may also have substantial impacts on Taiwan’s diplomatic, national security, and geoeconomic efforts during a time of critical international exposure.

To address these timely and salient topics, please join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for a panel discussion that brings together leading experts and practitioners to analyze the roots and ramifications of Taiwan’s ongoing legislative turbulence. Scholars, students, and policymakers interested in Taiwan’s democratic development, legislative politics, and governance will find this discussion particularly valuable in assessing both the challenges and resilience of Taiwan’s governing institutions.

Lunch (12:00—12:30)

Roundtable Discussion (12:30—2:00)

“Digital Civic Engagement in Taiwan’s Legislative Crisis,” Ipa (Hsiao-wei) Chiu, Co-founder of g0v.tw community

Wei Ping-Li, Postdoctoral Associate, the University of Maryland

“A Constitutional Crisis during a Time of Global Crises,” Thomas J. Shattuck, Senior Program Manager, Perry World House

RSVP

Speakers

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

Ipa is co-founder of g0v.tw, a civic tech community in Taiwan starting from 2012. She is a writer and documentary director. She focuses on citizen engagement and public participation for the past 12 years, with the g0v community, which promotes online collaboration through open source culture between civil society and public sectors. She will publish her second book at the end of 2024, which is about her sociologist father and the intellectual community during Taiwan’s democratization process in the 1990s.

Dr. Wei-Ping Li received her Ph.D. degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland in 2023. She is a postdoctoral researcher and is working on a project with Dr. Sarah Oates and Dr. Naeemul Hassan to investigate the disinformation narratives in ethnic media in the United States.

Li’s research focuses on the transnational dissemination of false information, conspiracy theories and propaganda. She is currently working on a book that is based on her dissertation. The book will explore the impact of disinformation and conspiracy theories from Chinese and American sources on the Taiwanese media ecosystem during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular emphasis on the geopolitical context of the intensifying conflict among Taiwan, China and the United States.

Li has been a research fellow at the Taiwan Factcheck Center (TFC) since 2023, where she monitors and analyzes false information disseminated in the Chinese-language world. Her articles and analyses, published by the TFC, have been cited by international news outlets and think tanks, providing readers with information on the trends of Chinese disinformation.

Li has been admitted to the practice of law in New York state. Before pursuing an academic career in journalism, she offered consulting services on digital human rights in Asia. She was also an experienced journalist working for media outlets in Taiwan.

Li earned her LL.M. (Master of Laws) degrees from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Soochow University (Taiwan), as well as a Master of Arts degree in journalism from National ChengChi University (Taiwan).

Thomas J. Shattuck is a Senior Program Manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. He is a 2024-25 non-resident WSD-Handa Fellow at the Pacific Forum a 2024-25 non-resident Research Fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, and a 2025 fellow with Atomic Anxiety in the New Nuclear Age. His research focuses on cross-Strait relations, Taiwanese and Chinese domestic and foreign affairs, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, and the US role in the Indo-Pacific. Shattuck is a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute, Non-Resident Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, member of Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Foreign Policy Initiative, and the Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders Program, where he participated in the 2022 US-Philippines Next-Generation Leaders in Security Initiative.

Moderator

Richard J. Haddock is the Assistant Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University, where he leads the Center’s robust Taiwan affairs programming, outreach, and curriculum development. He is also a member of the UC Berkeley U.S.-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group, where his research focuses on U.S.-Taiwan education diplomacy and exchange. Previously, he has held positions at the GW East Asia National Resource Center, the National Democratic Institute’s Asia team, the American Institute in Taiwan’s Public Diplomacy Section, and the U.S. Department of State. Mr. Haddock is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University, focusing on digital democracy and e-governance development in the Asia-Pacific. He holds an MA in Asian Studies from the Elliott School, with a concentration on domestic politics and foreign policy of East Asia. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BA in Political Science and minors in Asian Studies and Diplomacy.

A graphic with the event location, date, time, and speaker photos

[02/05/2025] Walking the Tightrope: The Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia

January 15, 2025February 14, 2025Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Wednesday, February 5th, 2025

9:30 AM – 3:00 PM ET

Linder Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

In May of 1965, the “Wang Gungwu Report” caused massive protests in then-Malaysian state of Singapore by recommending that Nanyang University change its language of instruction from Chinese to English. Despite significant student demonstrations, the committee accepted the recommendations. By August 9 of that year, Singapore declared itself as an independent “multicultural” state separate from Malaysia, with English enshrined as a symbol of its pluralistic model.

Wang Gungwu, in later articles, argued that diasporic Chinese in Southeast Asia should no longer accept the label Huaqiao ‘sojourner’ since it suggested a temporary status and harbored political connotations of patriotic loyalty towards China (Wang 1994). Nor should use of English be considered an alignment with the USA, as Bilahari Kausikan reminds us. In an environment defined partly by two superpowers, and partly by their own competing local interests, diasporic Chinese in Southeast Asia find themselves deploying the symbols of language, cultural identity, and political interests to walk – and “talk” – a tightrope.

We have chosen to focus on the “Malay archipelago” broadly defined – i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Philippines and southern Thailand – as a uniquely perilous context that includes not only risky territorial claims, but one that is variously framed in “civilizational” terms that make reference to long histories of Chinese, European and Middle Eastern participation in the region. This conference seeks papers that document and analyze the diverse but often precarious practices of everyday management of linguistic and cultural identities of diasporic Chinese in the Southeast Asian region.

Topics:

Chang-Yau Hoon: “Chinese Christians in Indonesia: The Interplay of Ethnicity, Religion, and Class”

Hannah Ho Ming Yit: “The Inscrutable Voices: Subjective Writing in Transnational Anglophone Chinese Bruneian Poetry”

Charlotte Setijadi: “Dreams of Singapore: Narratives and Symbolisms of Order in Chinese Indonesian Residential Enclaves”

Chong Wu Ling: “Constrained Agency: Malaysia’s Ethnic Chinese-Based Political Parties’ Attitudes Towards Independent Chinese Secondary Schools (ICSSs) and Unified Examination Certificate (UEC)”

Ravando: “Bringing Chinese Indonesian Narratives into Indonesia’s Medical History: The Role of Chinese Indonesian Doctors in Advancing Public Health System in Colonial Indonesia”

RSVP

Featured Speaker

Dédé Oetomo is an activist, independent scholar, and educator in research, education and advocacy in the fields of language and society, the Chinese diaspora, diversity in gender-sexuality, and HIV & AIDS, mainly as Founder and Trustee at GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation (www.gayanusantara.or.id), which also hosts the Coalition for Sexual & Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR; www.csbronline.org). He also serves on the Board of Indonesia AIDS Coalition. Academically, he is an adjunct senior lecturer at Universitas Airlangga, Universitas Surabaya, Widya Mandala Catholic University in Surabaya and Universitas Ciputra Surabaya, Indonesia.

Speakers

Hoon Chang Yau smiling looking into camera

Chang-Yau Hoon is Professor at the Institute of Asian Studies, and former Director of the Centre for Advanced Research, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. He is also Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, Honorary Director of Institute of Brunei Studies at Guangxi Minzu University, and Advisor of Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at South China Normal University. He was Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in 2023-2024. Additionally, he serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Asia in Transition book series at Springer. Professor Hoon specializes in Chinese diaspora, identity politics, multiculturalism, and religious and cultural diversity in contemporary Southeast Asia. His latest books include Christianity and the Chinese in Indonesia: Ethnicity, Education and Enterprise (sole-authored, Liverpool University Press, 2023); Southeast Asia in China: Historical Entanglements and Contemporary Engagements (co-authored, Lexington Press, 2023); and Stability, Growth and Sustainability: Catalysts for Socio-economic Development in Brunei Darussalam (co-edited, ISEAS Publishing, 2023).

Hannah Ming Yit Ho is Assistant Professor of Literatures in English at the University of Brunei Darussalam. She is also a research associate at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Her PhD in Asian diasporic literatures was completed at the University of York, United Kingdom. She was previously a research fellow at King’s College London and University of California, Berkeley. Her current research interests include Chinese identity in contemporary literatures of Southeast Asia. Her publications in journals include Asiatic, Kritika Kultura, Southeast Asian Review of English, Science Fiction Studies (forthcoming) and The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture. She serves as a section editor (Southeast Asia) for The Year’s Work in English Studies (Oxford University Press). She coedited Engaging Modern Brunei: Research on Language, Literature and Cultures (Springer 2021). Her forthcoming book is entitled Transnational Southeast Asia: Communities, Contestations and Cultures (2025).

Charlotte Setijadi smiling looking into camera

Charlotte Setijadi is a Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. She researches Chinese identity politics in Indonesia and Indonesian diaspora politics. Charlotte has published widely in academic journals such as the Journal of Contemporary China, Asian Survey, and Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies. Her first book Memories of Unbelonging: Ethnic Chinese Identity Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia was published by University of Hawai’i Press in 2023. She is currently working on a new book project on the migration trajectories of highly-skilled Indonesian professional migrants.

Wu-Ling Chong (钟武凌) is a senior lecturer at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University Malaya, Malaysia. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Her areas of expertise include ethnic Chinese studies and Southeast Asian politics. She is the author of Chinese Indonesians in post-Suharto Indonesia: Democratisation and ethnic minorities (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2018). The book explores the role of ethnic Chinese Indonesians in shaping the democratization process as well as their position in post-Suharto Indonesia across business, politics and civil society. She is also the co-author of Kaedah penyelidikan dan panduan penulisan [Research methods and guidance for writing, in Malay] (Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Malaya Press, 2016) (with Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja and Noraini Mohamed Hassan).

Ravando is a John Legge Research Fellow in the Department of History at Monash University. He obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2023, with a thesis examining the history of Sin Po (1910–1949), the most influential and widely circulated Sino-Malay newspaper in colonial Indonesia. His research focuses on Chinese-Indonesian history, the intersection of medicine and ethnicity, and transnational health networks in Southeast Asia. He has authored five books, including his latest, Merawat Kehidupan: 100 Tahun Rumah Sakit Husada (Jang Seng Ie), which documents a century of medical care at one of Indonesia’s oldest hospitals. He is currently developing a book project based on his doctoral research.

Discussant

Margaret Scott is a journalist focusing on Southeast Asia and teaches at NYU’s Program in International Relations. She is also one of the founders of the New York Southeast Asia Network. Currently she is working on the role of Islam in Indonesian politics since 1998, and her research interests include democratic consolidation and decline, Islam, and religious actors in Southeast Asia. She writes primarily for The New York Review of Books. Scott also worked for The Far Eastern Economic Review, a magazine based in Hong Kong. She has also written for The New York Times Magazine and the Times Literary Supplement.

Moderators

Joel Kuipers is Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington DC. Since 1978, he has conducted linguistic and ethnographic research in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, focusing on the relation of specialized language registers to systems of authority. He has published widely in academic journals such as American Ethnologist, American Anthropologist, Anthropological Quarterly, Anthropological Linguistics, Indonesia, Sapiens, Cultural Anthropology, Language in Society, and Anthropology Today. His first (U Penn 1990) and second (Cambridge 1998) books concerned ritual speech on the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba; a third about the work of anthropologist Harold C Conklin (Yale 2007), and edited volumes on discourses of science in US middle schools (2008), and cell phone use (2018). He is currently at work on a new book project that draws on his Southeast Asian work concerning the relation between speech registers and sociocultural scale.

Janet Steele is professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs at the George Washington University. She received her Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University, and focuses on how culture is communicated through the mass media. A frequent visitor to Southeast Asia, she lectures on topics ranging from the role of the press in a democratic society to specialized workshops 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. Her most recent book, published in 2023 by NUS Press, is called “Malaysiakini and the power of independent media in Malaysia.”

[01/16/2025] The Future of U.S. Policy and the Indo-Pacific

December 17, 2024January 31, 2025Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Thursday, January 16th, 2025

1:00 – 4:30 PM ET

The State Room

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

What opportunities and challenges lie ahead for the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific region? This two-panel event brings together experts from the United States and Asia to discuss the future of U.S. policy and the policies of key regional players, including Korea, Japan, China, and their neighbors. As we enter a new year marked by political transitions in many capitals, the speakers will assess the foreign policy challenges and domestic political dynamics that will shape U.S. engagement and broader developments across the Indo-Pacific.

This GWIKS Korea Policy Forum is organized in partnership with GW’s Sigur Center for Asian Studies, East Asia National Resources Center, Taiwan Education and Research Program, Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, and Ritsumeikan University’s Center for East Asian Peace and Cooperation Studies.

Agenda:

Panel 1: Grand Strategy (1:00 -2:30 PM)

Youngjoo Jang, Visiting Research Fellow, Center for East Asian Peace and Cooperation Studies, Ritsumeikan University
Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, The George Washington University
Drew Arveseth, Director, Korean Peninsula and Mongolia, United States National Security Council (NSC)
Bumsoo Kim, Director, Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Seoul National University

Break and Networking (2:30–3:00)

Panel 2: Emerging Challenges (3:00-4:30 PM)

Inwook Kim, Associate Professor of International Affairs, Sungkyunkwan University
Ilaria Mazzocco, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Prashanth Parameswaran, Global Fellow, The Wilson Center; CEO and Founder, ASEAN Wonk Global; Senior Columnist, The Diplomat
Ann Kowalewski, Senior Non-Resident Fellow, The Global Taiwan Institute
Tashi Rabgey, Research Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University

Panel One

A picture of Youngjoo Jang, smiling and looking at the camera

Dr. Youngjoo Jang is a visiting research fellow at the Center for East Asian Peace and Cooperation Studies, Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. Her research interests include the U.S.-DPRK relations, the Japan-DPRK relations, and North Korea’s foreign policy over its nuclear development. She holds M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from Ritsumeikan University. Her dissertation title is “The U.S.-DPRK Nuclear Agreements through Interactions of Coercive Diplomacy from 1992 to 2012.” Her recent works appear in books (in Japanese) of New Horizons of North Korean Studies (Nakato and Choi, 2023) and External Relations of North Korea (Nakato and Mori, 2023) as a chapter, in Asia-Japan Research Institute website as a review article about North Korea (2023), and in the Ristumeikan Journal of International Studies as a journal article (2019).

Robert Sutter looking ahead smiling, in suit

Professor 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 23 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), US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present, Fourth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield 2022), and Congress and China Policy: Past Episodic, Recent Enduring Influence (Lexington Books, 2024)

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.

A picture of Drew Arveseth, smiling and looking at the camera

Drew Arveseth is the Director for the Korean Peninsula and Mongolia at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC). During his tenure on the NSC staff, he has engaged on U.S. policy issues ranging from extended deterrence, risk reduction, denuclearization, and Indo-Pacific regional security dynamics to civil-nuclear cooperation, regional development initiatives, economic security, transnational threats, and human rights. Drew played an integral role in preparations for the U.S.-ROK-Japan Camp David Trilateral as well as the State Visit of ROK President Yoon to the United States in 2023, which culminated in the release of the Washington Declaration. Prior to arriving at the NSC, he served as a U.S. Government analyst covering economic, political, and security developments on the Korean Peninsula and in the broader East Asia Pacific region. Before his national security career, Drew served with the Saejowi Initiative, an organization providing medical support and social services to DPRK defectors in the ROK. He received a Master’s in International Affairs from the George Washington University, where he focused on security in East Asia. He is a graduate of Utah State University, where he studied economics and international business.

Kim Bumsoo looking at the camera and smiling

Professor Bumsoo Kim received his B.A. and M.A. from the Department of International Relations at Seoul National University in 1992 and 1997 respectively, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2006. Since then, he has worked as a research professor in the BK Program of the Department of Political Science at Seoul National University and as a lecturer at Seoul National University, and since 2010, has been a professor in the College of Liberal Studies (CLS) at Seoul National University. In the College of Liberal Studies, he served as an associate dean twice (2012-2014 and 2017-2019), and since February 2023, has been serving as a Dean. At the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS), he served as a chief of External Relations Division, head of the Center for Unification Studies, and deputy director from 2016 to 2023, and since March 2023 has been serving as a director. He has also served as a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo and a visiting professor at the University of Washington, U.S.A. He has served as a vice president of the Korean Political Science Association, a research board member of the Korean Association of International Studies, a president of the Governance Research Association, and a consultant for university restructuring at the Ministry of Education. As of March 2023, he is a member of the Academic Council of Seoul National University and an advisory board member of the Overseas Koreans Foundation.

His main research interests include political theory such as theory of justice and freedom, human rights theory, peace theory, nationalism, and multiculturalism. He has published many books in Korean, including What Is Fairness in Korean Society: 7 Theories of Justice to Protect a Fair Me (Akanet, 2022); What Is Peace Studies: Genealogy and Issues (Seoul National University Press, 2022); Korea-Japan Relations: Beyond Conflict to Reconciliation (Parkmun Press, 2021). He has also published many articles in peer-reviewed journals, which include “Bringing Class Back In: The Changing Basis of Inequality and the Korean Minority in Japan,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31(5), 2008, pp. 871-898; “Are North Korean Compatriots ‘Korean’? The Trifurcation of Ethnic Nationalism in South Korea during the Syngman Rhee Era (1948-1960),” Journal of Korean Studies, 24(1), 2019, pp. 149~171; “Are the Freedom of States and International Public Laws Compatible? Kant’s Theory of Peace and the Freedom of States” Korean Journal of International Relations, 59(3), 2019, pp. 7-54. In 2009, he received the Best Article Award of the Korean Political Science Association for his article “Who Is Japanese? the Boundaries of the ‘Japanese’ in Post-War Japan,” published in Journal of the Korean Political Science Association, 43(1), pp. 177-202.

Panel Two

Professor Inwook Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Sungkyunkwan University. His main research interests include history and geopolitics of oil, politics of alliances, and the Korean Peninsula. His works have either appeared or are forthcoming in International Studies Quarterly, Security Studies, Journal of Global Security Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, The Pacific Review, Foreign Affairs, and others.

Professor Kim holds a PhD in Political Science from the George Washington University where he was also a research affiliate at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies (ISCS). He holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) from University of Oxford and received MSc in Politics of the World Economy from London School of Economics . He is also a former recipient of Fulbright Scholarship, and previously taught at Korea Military Academy, the University of Hong Kong, and Singapore Management University.

Ilaria Mazzocco is deputy director and senior fellow with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She has over a decade of experience researching industrial policy, Chinese climate policy, and the intersection between the energy transition and economic and national security. Prior to joining CSIS, she led research on Chinese climate and energy policy for Macropolo, the Paulson Institute’s think tank. She holds a PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where her dissertation investigated Chinese industrial policy by focusing on electric vehicle promotion efforts and the role of local governments. She also holds master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins SAIS and Central European University, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Bard College. She speaks Chinese and Italian.

Dr. Prashanth Parameswaran is a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, where he produces analysis on Southeast Asian political and security issues, Asian defense affairs, and U.S. foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific. He is also the CEO and Founder of ASEAN Wonk Global, a research hub that produces the weekly ASEAN Wonk BulletBrief newsletter; Senior Columnist at The Diplomat, one of Asia’s leading current affairs publications; and an Advisor at BowerGroupAsia, a strategic advisory firm focused on the Indo-Pacific region. His new book, “Elusive Balances: Shaping U.S.-Southeast Asia Strategy,” published in 2022, develops and applies an original “balance of commitment” approach to examining U.S. commitment in Southeast Asia over the past half century, along with policy recommendations for future administrations.

A political scientist by training, Dr. Parameswaran is a recognized expert on Asian affairs and U.S. foreign policy in the region, with a focus on Southeast Asia and politics and security issues. He has conducted grant-based field research across the region, consulted for companies and governments, and taught courses affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of State. His policy insights, research and commentary have been published widely in the United States and across the region in leading publications and journals including CNN, The Washington Post, The South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, Asia Policy and Contemporary Southeast Asia.

Dr. Parameswaran has held roles across think tanks, government, media and business in the United States and in the region, including most recently the Foreign Service Institute and The Diplomat, where he served as senior editor. In those capacities, he advanced research and analysis on key Asian political and security trends using rigorous research methodologies and extensive in-country networks, with an emphasis on Southeast Asia.

Dr. Parameswaran holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University focused on international security, international business and U.S. foreign policy, and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia where he studied foreign affairs and peace and conflict studies and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Ann E. Kowalewski has a decade of experience in think tank, government, and private sector on Indo-Pacific policy. Annie led the Indo-Pacific portfolio as a senior professional staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she managed legislation and oversight regarding strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), US policy towards Taiwan, alliance management, and the US diplomatic and security posture in the region. She also served as an Indo-Pacific senior policy analyst on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for three years.

Prior to serving on the Hill, Ms. Kowalewski spent four years researching Indo-Pacific issues at various think tanks. As a research associate with the American Enterprise Institute, she researched, wrote, and presented on topics to include US Indo-Pacific strategy, PRC military modernization programs, and recommendations for strengthening US defense alliances in the Indo-Pacific. She was also a China research assistant for Georgetown’s Center for Security Studies and the United States Institute of Peace.

Before her career in DC, Ms. Kowalewski served in the Scottish Parliament for two years as a parliamentary assistant working on EU case law and nuclear non-proliferation issues. She received her MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University and her LLB (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh, School of Law. She is fluent in Mandarin.

Professor Tashi Rabgey is Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School where she specializes in statehood, authoritarianism and territorial politics, with a focus on multilevel governance and the politics of scale in the People’s Republic of China. She also works on constitutional and international legal issues relating to special status arrangements of asymmetric states and autonomous regions in comparative global contexts. Her primary regional focus is Tibet and Greater China, with a specialization in the Sino-Tibetan dispute. She is completing a long-term study of Chinese statehood, elite and institutional politics and Tibet’s rule and governance during China’s global rise.

At the Elliott School, she directs the Research Initiative on Multination States (RIMS) which convenes a Track II dialogue process with policy researchers in Beijing on state asymmetry and territorial autonomy. She is also founding director of the Tibet Governance Lab, a research platform and incubator for policy research on Tibet that provides a dynamic hub for the exchange of research, practice-driven insight and approaches to governance in contemporary Tibet.

Before joining the Elliott School, Professor Rabgey was codirector of the University of Virginia Tibet Center where she was a lecturer in contemporary Tibetan studies. She is also cofounder of Machik, a global nonprofit that has delivered strategies for Tibetan-language education, community empowerment and civic engagement in Tibet for over twenty years. She has been a fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on US-China Relations, a visiting scholar at Sichuan University and visiting professor at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr in Kurdistan (Iraq). She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, as well as law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge where she was a Rhodes scholar.

Moderaters

A picture of Eric Schluessel, smiling in glasses and lookin gat the camera

Mr. Haddock is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University, focusing on digital democracy and e-governance development in the Asia-Pacific. He holds an MA in Asian Studies from the Elliott School, with a concentration on domestic politics and foreign policy of East Asia. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BA in Political Science and minors in Asian Studies and Diplomacy.

portrait of Celeste Arrington posing with arms crossed in black outfit

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

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

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

logos for the east asia national resource center, the gw institute for korean studies, and the sigur center

A photo will information about the speakers, time, date, and location

[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

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.