The heartbreaking sight of terrified Afghans struggling to leave their country in the wake of the withdrawal of United States and NATO forces, inevitably brings to mind images from the end of the American war in Vietnam, and raises questions about the impact of other conflicts such as the war on the Korean Peninsula. Organized in two sessions, this conference prompts us to consider the geopolitical, human, environmental, and economic consequences of these wars on the people in the conflict zone, as well on the veterans and citizens of the United States. The first session convenes scholars whose perspectives are informed by rigorous study of extant documentation. The second panel comprises representatives of humanitarian organizations that have been working on the ground to mitigate the baneful consequences of war in the conflict areas as well as among former combatants.

Session 1 (9:00 AM – 10:30 AM EST): Geopolitical, Economic, and Social Consequences of War

Speakers:

• Heidi Peltier, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Political Science and Project Director, Cost of War Project, Boston University 
• Ji-young Lee, Associate Professor of International Relations and C.W. Lim and KF Professor of Korean Studies, American University
• Paul Morrow, Fellow, Vietnam Legacies Project, Human Rights Center, University of Dayton
• Benjamin D. Hopkins, Professor of History and International Affairs, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

Moderator:

• Christopher A. Kojm, Professor of International Affairs and Director, Leadership, Ethics and Practice Initiative, Elliott School of International Affairs

Session 2 (10:30 AM – 12:00 PM EST): On the Ground: Humanitarian Efforts to Heal the Wounds of War

Speakers:

• Daniel Jasper, Public Education and Advocacy Coordinator, Asia, American Friends Service Committee
• Susan Hammond, Executive Director and Founder, War Legacies Project
• Heidi Kühn, Founder and CEO, Roots of Peace

Moderator:

• Linda J. Yarr, Research Professor of International Affairs and Director, Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA), Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

This conference will take place in two separate WebEx events, one for each session, with both held on Thursday, November 18th. If you would like to attend both sessions, please register through both of the above Eventbrite pages, as the WebEx links will be different for both. The webinar for Session 1 begins at 9:00 AM EST, and the webinar for Session 2 begins at 10:30 AM EST. Registered guests will receive an email with instructions for joining the webinar prior to the event. Registration closes for each session 24 hours before each WebEx event begins. Media inquiries must be sent to gwmedia@gwu.edu in advance. If you need specific accommodations, please contact gsigur@gwu.edu with at least 3 business days’ notice.

This event is free, open to the public, and will be recorded. Questions can be sent in advance to gsigur@gwu.edu with subject “Costs and Consequences of War Session 1” or “Costs and Consequences of War Session 2.”

Session 1 Speakers

Heidi Peltier is a Senior Researcher at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and the Director of Programs for the Costs of War Project. She has been a contributing author to the Costs of War Project since its inception in 2010 and joined the staff in 2019. Peltier is an Economist who has written on military-related topics including the employment impacts of military and other public spending; military contracting, or what she calls the “Camo Economy;” and other areas at the intersection of militarism and public finance. She has also written widely on the employment impacts of a transition to a low-carbon economy, and is the author of the book, Creating a Clean-Energy Economy: How Investments in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Can Create Jobs in a Sustainable Economy.

Session 1 Moderator

Christopher A. Kojm serves as the Director of the Elliott School’s Leadership, Ethics and Practice Initiative. He re-joined the School as a Professor of Practice in International Affairs after serving as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2009 to 2014. He is also the Director of the US Foreign Policy Summer Program. He taught previously at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. In government, Chris served as a staffer on the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 1984-98 under Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, as a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1998-2003), and as deputy director of the 9/11 Commission (2003-04). He was also president of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, the Commission’s follow-on public education organization (2004-05). He also served as a Senior Advisor to the Iraq Study Group (2006). He received a master’s degree in Public Affairs from Princeton.

Session 2 Speakers

Daniel Jasper is the Asia Public Education and Advocacy Coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, where he has advocated for diplomacy, humanitarian cooperation, and peacebuilding with North Korea and China since 2015. He has assisted and taken part in humanitarian delegations to North Korea and regularly participates in Track II dialogues with Chinese foreign policy experts. He is a member of the National Committee on North Korea, an Advisory Board Member for the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, an International Advisor to the National Association of Korean Americans, as well as, the founder and primary author of StreetCivics.com. Previously, he worked at World Learning where he administered State Department exchange programs primarily with Iran. He has also worked for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Minnesota House of Representatives, and Congresswoman Betty McCollum. He holds a Master’s in public policy from Duke University and a Bachelor’s in global studies, cultural studies, and linguistics from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Susan Hammond, the daughter of a U.S. Vietnam veteran, became interested in post-war Southeast Asia after traveling to Viet Nam, and Cambodia in 1991. In 1996, after earning her MA in International Education from NYU, Susan returned to Viet Nam to study Vietnamese. She became involved in fostering mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia and addressing the long-term impacts of war while working as the Deputy Director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development from 1996 to 2007. During this time she lived in New, York, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos coordinating programs for FRD. In 2007, Susan returned to her home state of Vermont and founded War Legacies Project which focused on addressing the long-term health and environmental impacts of war including the on-going impacts of Agent Orange in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In 2019, Susan received the Vietnam Order of Friendship medal for her more than two decades of work in Viet Nam.

Heidi Kuhn is Founder and CEO of Roots of Peace, a humanitarian non-profit organization founded in September 1997 with a vision to transform MINES TO VINES–replacing the scourge of landmines with sustainable agricultural farmland. Her pioneering work empowers families living in war-torn regions with hope leading to the economics of peace through export and trade. She attended the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Political Economics, where those core beliefs were strengthened during the peace movement of the 1970’s, setting forth a lifelong commitment to pioneering the footsteps of peace. Heidi and Roots of Peace have been the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2006 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award/National Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the Rotary International “Service Above Self” Award. In 2018, she received the inaugural Earth Ethics Award from Marcus Nobel, nephew of Alfred Nobel, presented to her at the United Nations in New York. And, in 2019, Heidi received the Gandhi Global Family Award in New Delhi, the first American to receive this prestigious award on the 150​th Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.

Session 2 Moderator

Linda J. Yarr is Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs and Director of George Washington University’s Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA). PISA collaborates with organizations, universities and government agencies in Asia to address emerging issues such as climate change and conflict prevention, as well as to engage in joint research projects and training programs. Ms. Yarr has authored book chapters and articles on Vietnam, international affairs, and gender studies. She was a visiting scholar at the National University of Malaysia, American University, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute, and the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Previously, she taught global political economy at Long Island University and courses in political science and development studies at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado, Boulder. Ms. Yarr earned an international relations degree at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris, and an M.A. in Government and Southeast Asia studies at Cornell University.

Join a panel of experts to talk about the history and contemporary trends of transnational migration between East Asia and Latin America.

Transnational migration between East Asia and Latin America has been occurring for centuries, particularly since the trade of slave and indentured labor across the Atlantic and Caribbean. The oftentimes unsung history of East Asian diasporic communities in Latin America is one marked by geopolitical and geoeconomic pressures, discrimination and confusion, adaptation and resilience, and citizenship and nation-building. This event brings together a panel of experts to call attention to the transnational histories of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean communities in the Spanish Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

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

Speakers

Evelyn Hu-DeHart is Professor of History, American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University. She was Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Brown from 2002-2014, and Director of the Consortium on Advanced Studies in Cuba during the 2014-2015 Academic Year, and again in Spring 2019. In 2020, she was elected International Fellow of the Mexican Academy of Historians. In 2019-20, she was the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Centennial Fellow in the Dynamics of Place to research and write a book on The Chinese in the Spanish Empire, From Manila in the 16th Century to Cuba in the 19th Century. She has received two Fulbright fellowships, to Brazil and Peru, and lectures extensively in the United States, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean and Europe, in three languages (English, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, Spanish). She has written, edited, and published 11 books, on three main topics, in 4 languages and 5 continents: indigenous peoples on the U.S.-Mexico border; Asians in the Americas, with special attention to the Chinese diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean; diversity, multiculturalism, race, race relations and minority politics in the U.S. Select publications include: Across the Pacific: Asian Americans and Globalization (1999; e-version 2010); Asians in the Americas: Transculturation and Power (2002); Voluntary Associations in the Chinese Diaspora (2006); Asia and Latin America (2006); Afro-Asia  (2008); and Towards a Third Literature: Chinese Writings in the Americas (2012). She received her B.A in Political Science from Stanford University and her PhD in Latin American/Caribbean history from the University of Texas at Austin.

Taku Suzuki is Professor of International Studies at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He has conducted research on the Okinawan immigrant communities in Bolivia and Okinawan-Bolivian immigrant communities in Japan, war and peace tourism in Okinawa, and post-WW II Okinawan repatriation from the Japanese colonial Micronesia. He is the author of Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010). Currently, he is researching on digital divide within central Ohio’s Bhutanese refugee community that has impacted the community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the struggles among Kurdish, Iranian, and other asylum seekers who pursue legal status in Japan. He earned Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Minnesota, and he was a Freeman Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian Diaspora Studies at Wesleyan University.

Rachel Lim is Visiting Assistant Professor and Accountability, Climate, Equity, and Scholarship (ACES) Fellow in the Department of History at Texas A&M University. Her research and teaching interests include migration, globalization, and comparative race and ethnicity at the intersection of Asia and the Américas. Her current book project, Itinerant Belonging: Korean Transnational Migration to and from Mexico, uses interdisciplinary research methods to examine the history of Korean migration to Mexico, from the start of the twentieth century to the present. Rachel received her PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and she has written for multiple scholarly and popular venues, including The Journal of Asian American Studies, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, and The Washington Post.

Twitter: @Lim_Rachel_H

Speakers

Hiromi Ishizawa is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Sociology department at GW. Her research interests are in the areas of social and family demography, immigration, sociology of language, and urban sociology. Her primary research goal is to understand diversity in immigrants’ pathways of incorporation into a host society. In particular, she focuses on the residential and familial contexts in which immigrants and their children reside, and how these contexts affect whether, and the manner in which, they are integrated into a host society.

Department of International Studies, Political Science, and History, CHRIST (Deemed to be University)

&

Rising Powers Initiative, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

Presents

Workshop for Students, Researchers, and Educators

Thursday, September 16, 2021
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM IST (UTC+05:30)  | 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
WebEx Events

WORKSHOP PROGRAMME

Welcome — Madhumati Deshpande

Opening — Joseph C.C.

Introduction — Deepa Ollapally

SESSION I

5:35-6:10PM IST  |  8:05-8:40 AM EDT

Richard M Rossow: “Economic and Tech Issues: Top Three Convergence sand Top Three Divergences”

SESSION II

6:10-6:45PM IST  |  8:40-9:15 AM EDT

Satu Limaye: “Security and Strategic Issues: Top Three Convergences and Top Three Divergences”

SESSION III

6:45-7:20 PM IST  |  9:15-9:50 AM EDT

Manjari Miller: “Political Values and Soft Power: Top Three Convergences and Top Three Divergences “

OPEN DISCUSSION

7:20-7:30 PM IST  |  9:50-10:00 AM EDT

CONCLUSION & VOTE OF THANKS

N. Manoharan

This workshop is being held in partnership with The George Washington University, US Department of State and CHRIST (Deemed to be University).

Welcome Remarks

Madhumati Deshpande is the Department Coordinator (Head of Department) and Assistant Professor in the Department of International Studies, Political Science and History, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore.  Her areas of research interest include international relations and foreign policy analysis, Indian foreign policy, US foreign policy and political theory.

Deshpande has previously been a graduate assistant and election observer in the Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia and observed elections in East Timor and Guyana. She also held the position of editor for Springer Reference works. She has published several articles in various peer reviewed journals and three book chapters.

She completed her Masters in Political Science from Karnataka University, Dharwad and holds a PhD from The School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Opening Remarks

Dr. Fr. Joseph C. C. is Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor, Department of International Studies and History, CHRIST (Deemed to be University). He is also Director of Student Affairs, at the University. 

A noted expert on maritime history, Fr. Jose is a member of both the Indian History Congress and South Indian History Congress. He has authored or co-authored four books and numerous peer-reviewed articles on wide-ranging issues and presented papers at both national and international conferences. He recently edited a book, Revisiting a Treasure Trove: Perspectives on the Collection at St Kuriakose Elias Chavara Archives and Research Centre. One of his latest publications is “Organization Culture and Work Values of Global Firms: Merging Eastern and Western Perspectives.”

His areas of interest are Maritime Studies, Organizational Culture and Work Values.

Apart from history, Dr. Fr. Jose is well versed in theology and philosophy. He is a passionate teacher and an able administrator. 

He holds a PhD in History from Pondicherry University, India. 

Workshop Moderator

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

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

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

Expert Panelists

Richard Rossow is a Senior Adviser and holds the Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In this role he helps frame and shape policies to promote greater business and economic engagement between the two countries. He joined CSIS in 2014, having spent the last 16 years working in a variety of capacities to strengthen the partnership between the United States and India.

Prior to CSIS, he served as director for South Asia at McLarty Associates, leading the firm’s work for clients in India and the neighboring region. From 2008 to 2012, Rossow was with New York Life Insurance company, most recently as head of International Governmental Affairs, where he developed strategic plans for the company’s public policy and global mergers and acquisitions work.

Earlier, Rossow served as deputy director of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), the world’s leading advocacy group on behalf of strengthening economic ties between the United States and India. While at USIBC, he managed the Council’s policy groups in the energy, information technology, insurance, media and entertainment, and telecommunications sectors. Rossow received his B.A. from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. 

Dr. Satu Limaye is Vice President and Director of the East West Center in Washington where he created and now directs the Asia Matters for America initiative. He is the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. He is also Senior Advisor, China & Indo-Pacific Division at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA Corp) and Senior Fellow on Asia History and Policy at the Foreign Policy Institute at Paul H. Nitze School of International Studies (SAIS). He is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar.

He serves as a reviewer for leading publishers, journals, and US and international foundations. He currently serves on the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) Advisory Council, the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, and the National Bureau of Asian Research East Asia Study Group.

He publishes and presents on a range of Indo-Pacific issues. Recent publications include: Raging Waters: China, India, Bangladesh, and Brahmaputra Water Politics (Marine Corps University Press); Russia’s Peripheral Relevance to US-Indo Pacific Relations (Center for the National Interest); “The U.S.-Philippine Alliance: A Renegotiated Mutual Defense Treaty is Neither Simple nor a Panacea for Bilateral Ties” (Philippine Star), Weighted West: The Indian Navy’s New Maritime Strategy, Capabilities, and Diplomacy (CNA Corp); ASEAN is Here to Stay and What that Means for the U.S. (The Diplomat); America’s 2016 Election Debate on Asia Policy and Asian Reactions (with Robert Sutter); The United States-Japan Alliance and Southeast Asia: Meeting Regional Demands; and The Indian Ocean in Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Policies (forthcoming).

Previously he was a Research Staff Member of the Strategy and Resources Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and Director of Research and Publications at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS), a direct reporting unit of U.S. Pacific Command. He has been an Abe Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy and a Henry Luce Scholar and Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) in Tokyo.

Manjari Chatterjee Miller is senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She is also a research associate in the Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford. An expert on India, China, South Asia, and rising powers, she is the author of Why Nations Rise: Narratives and the Path to Great Power (2021) and Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China (2013). Miller is also the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (2020), a monthly columnist for the Hindustan Times, and a frequent contributor to policy and media outlets in the United States and Asia.

Miller is currently on leave from the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University where she is a tenured associate professor of international relations, and the director of the Rising Powers Initiative at the Pardee Center. She has been a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a fellow at the Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, a visiting associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and a visiting scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed and policy journals, and chapters in edited books. She serves on the international advisory board of Chatham House’s International Affairs journal, and her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from multiple institutions. Miller received a BA from the University of Delhi, an MSc from the University of London, and a PhD from Harvard University. She was a post-doctoral fellow in the China and the World Program at Princeton University.

Closing Remarks

N. Manoharan is an Associate Professor of International Studies, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. Until recently he served at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), Prime Minister’s Office, and Ministry of Defence, New Delhi. He was South Asia Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center Washington and is a recipient of Mahbub-ul Haq international award for research. 

His areas of interest include internal security, terrorism, Sri Lanka, Maldives, human rights, ethnic conflicts, multiculturalism, security sector reforms and conflict resolution. 

His main books include: Developing Democracies, Counter-terror Laws and Security: Lessons from India and Sri Lanka; ‘Security Deficit’: A Comprehensive Internal Security Strategy for India; India’s War on Terror; SAARC: Towards Greater Connectivity; Ethnic Violence and Human Rights in Sri Lanka. 

Manoharan’s forthcoming book is on Federal Aspects of Foreign Policy: The Role of Tamil Nadu Fishermen Issue in India-Sri Lanka Relations. He writes regularly for leading newspapers, websites and reputed peer-reviewed international journals.

Manoharan has a PhD from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. 

Taiwan is a leader in considering how technology can promote democratic principles, a question that democracies around the world are currently grappling with. The pandemic has only intensified the digitization of Taiwan’s democracy. How is Taiwan experimenting with innovative digital oversight mechanisms? What does its civic tech communities and digital ecosystem look like? And importantly, what does Taiwan’s performance tell us about possible pathways to a digitized democratic future for others?

Moderator:

• Deepa Ollapally (Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at The George Washington University)

Speakers and Presentation Titles:

• Puma Shen (Assistant Professor at National Taipei University, Taiwan): How to Categorize and Respond to Disinformation Campaigns
• Mei-Chun Lee (Postdoc Researcher, Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Science, National Taiwan University & Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan): How Civic Tech Fights COVID-19 and Infodemic: Taiwan’s Case
• Melissa Newcomb (Senior Program Manager for the Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China Illiberal Influence programs at the National Democratic Institute): Taiwan and Democracy in a Digital Age

The webinar begins at 8:30pm EDT on Wednesday, September 8th. Registered guests will receive an email with instructions for joining the webinar prior to the event. Registration closes at 8:30pm EDT on September 7th, 24 hours before the event begins. Media inquiries must be sent to gwmedia@gwu.edu in advance. If you need specific accommodations, please contact gsigur@gwu.edu with at least 3 business days’ notice.

This event is free, open to the public, and will be recorded. Questions can be sent in advance to gsigur@gwu.edu with subject “Democracy’s Digital Future.”

Speakers

Puma Shen is the chairperson of Doublethink Lab and the vice president of Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR). He was a lawyer who focuses heavily on the Right to Privacy and track privacy violations locally. Dr. Shen’s article on China’s disinformation chain has been circulated widely among academics and the Taiwanese society in early 2019, greatly contributing to public awareness of Chinese IO. He specializes in state crime, information warfare, white-collar crime, and the sociology of law.

Moderator

Deepa Ollapally is the Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Director of the Rising Powers Initiative, and Research Professor of International Affairs. She 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 and drivers of these changes. Ollapally’s recent publications include co-edited volumes Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford University, 2012) and Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (Routledge, 2017). She has received major grants from the Smith Richardson Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation for projects related to India and Asia. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, and Reuters TV. She holds a PhD from Columbia University.

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban takeover will have a global impact. It seems likely to reshape regional politics, lead to questions about American credibility, and create a humanitarian crisis. What will Afghanistan look like with no American presence? How will the Taliban govern? How will other countries in the region deal with the collapse of the Afghan government?

This panel invites several distinguished scholars and policymakers to discuss how developments in Afghanistan will influence central Asia, the United States, and the world in future months.

Moderator:

Alyssa Ayres (Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University)

Speakers and Presentation Titles:

• Benjamin Hopkins (Professor of History and International Affairs): What’s next from the South/Central Asian Perspective?
• Marlene Laruelle (Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies): What’s next from the Russian Perspective?
• Ambassador Ronald Neumann (President of The American Academy of Diplomacy and former ambassador to Afghanistan): What’s next for US policy?
• Nilofar Sakhi (Director of Policy and Diplomacy at McColm & Company): What’s next from a humanitarian perspective?

This webinar is sponsored by the George Washington University Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the Institute for Middle East Studies, and the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies.

This event is open to the public. Questions can be sent in advance to gsigur@gwu.edu with subject “Afghanistan: What Comes Next?”

Moderator

Alyssa Ayres is Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Ayres is a foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. From 2013 to 2021, she was senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she remains an adjunct senior fellow. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Her book about India’s rise on the world stage, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World, was published in 2018. Ayres is also interested in the emergence of subnational engagement in foreign policy, particularly the growth of international city networks, and her current book project (working title, Bright Lights, Biggest Cities: The Urban Challenge to India’s Future, under contract with Oxford University Press) examines India’s urban transformation and its international implications. From 2010 to 2013, Ayres served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia. She received an AB from Harvard College and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago. @AyresAlyssa

Speakers

Benjamin D. Hopkins is Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. Hopkins is a historian of modern South Asia, specializing in the history of Afghanistan and British imperialism on the Indian subcontinent. He has authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous books on the region. Hopkins has received fellowships from the Council on Foreign Relations, the National University of Singapore, the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, and the Wilson Center in DC. Writing for the public, he has been featured in The New York Times, The National Interest, and the BBC. Hopkins holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and BSc from the London School of Economics. @GWUSigurCenter)

Stream Session 7: Future of Indo-Pacific Strategy on Day 1 of the NIICE Global Conclave conference.

Chair: Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan (Retd), Director General, National Maritime Foundation and Former Chief of Staff of the Western Naval Command, Indian Navy.

– Dr. Satu Limaye, Vice President and Director, East-West Center in Washington, Continuities and Change in US Indo-Pacific Relations.

– Dr. Deepa M. Ollapally, Research Professor and Associate Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies,
George Washington University.

– Abhijit Singh, Head, Maritime Policy Initiative, Observer Research Foundation.

– Dr. Aparna Pande, Director, Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia, Hudson Institute.

– Prof. Jeffrey S. Payne, Manager of Academic Affairs, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies.

The event will be moderated by Professors Deepa Ollapally of the Elliott School of International Affairs and Kavita Daiya of the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences. The student panel will feature the following young scholars of international affairs:

Rahul Bhatia graduated from the Elliott School of International Affairs with a master’s degree in Security Policy Studies in 2019. He is currently the Security Studies Program Coordinator and a Research Assistant at Carnegie India. Rahul leads Carnegie India’s project on the study of Sino-Indian border tensions and also coordinates events, seminars and dialogues. His research focuses on Indian security policy and the Indo-Pacific region. He is based in New Delhi.

Vaibhav Jain is a 2019 graduate of George Washington University with degrees in Economics and International Affairs. He is currently based out of his hometown—New Delhi—where he is a supply chain manager with a leading steel company. He is also the co-founder of a stealth startup that is working on digitizing India’s small and medium businesses. He is the Director of Policy Initiatives at Young India, a DC-based progressive diaspora organization that is focused on making India’s democracy work for her last citizen.

Akshaya Sadras is from Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh and she graduated in 2018 from the Elliott School of International Affairs with a concentration in Economic Development and double majoring in Economics. She worked at the Indian Mission to the UN in the Humanitarian and Social Council. She is currently working at her family law firm specializing in criminal, civil and family law while pursuing her law degree.