Tag: Panel Events

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

Hybrid Event:

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

and Online via Zoom

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

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

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

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

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

Registration

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

Featuring

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

Video Introduction by

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

Presiding

Amb. Julia Chang Bloch, USCET Executive Chair 

Speakers

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

Moderator

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

Current Perspectives in a Time of Global Realignment

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

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

Harry Harding Auditorium

1957 E St NW Room 213

IN-PERSON ONLY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keynote Speaker

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

Opening Remarks

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

Moderator

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

Panelists

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

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

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

Discussant

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

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

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

Zoom Event

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

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

Registration

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

Speakers

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

Opening Remarks

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

Moderator

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

Speakers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Opening Remarks

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

Moderator

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.

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.