The US, China and the Balance of Influence in and around Southeast Asia

The recent US-ASEAN summit at Sunnylands in California is just the latest high-profile instance of Washington's efforts to strengthen its relations with Asia. Through a MacArthur Foundation-supported project he is leading, Bates Gill has explored a range of old and new security ties between the US and its partners in the Asia-Pacific region, including Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Australia. Each of these governments seeks to strike the right balance between Washington and Beijing, but the domestic and foreign policies they employ for that purpose differ greatly. Basing his findings and analysis on extensive field research in these countries, Prof. Gill will offer recommendations for Washington and its regional partners as they look to engage with and hedge against a rising China.

Bates Gill has a 30-year international career as a China watcher, having held teaching, research, and executive leadership positions in the United States, China, Europe, and Australia. He is currently a board director of China Matters, a not-for-profit advisory based in Sydney, Australia. In 2012-15 he was CEO of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He directed the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute from 2007 to 2012 and previously held the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and served as the inaugural director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. 

Prof. Gill has authored or edited seven books including Rising Star: China's New Security Diplomacy and Asia's New Multilateralism: Cooperation, Conflict and the Search for Community (co-edited with Michael Green). His professional affiliations include service on the editorial boards of China Quarterly and the Journal of Contemporary China, the international advisory board of the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, and the board of governors of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (Singapore). His PhD is from the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia.