"America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it,” declared President-elect Joe Biden as he unveiled his foreign policy team on November 24. Now, however, with the pillars of America’s international mission — multilateralism, alliances, and democracy – significantly frayed after four years of Trumpism, and amidst pressing global challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic to shifting geopolitics and climate change, the Biden administration faces numerous hard choices. The Asia-Pacific region in particular will remain a source of major challenges as the power competition with China looms large over the U.S. foreign policy agenda. In this online panel discussion, APARC experts will examine the challenges and opportunities for U.S. engagement and leadership in Asia, assess Asian nations’ expectations from the incoming administration, and provide recommendations to achieve American economic and security interests. APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin will moderate the conversation.

Panelists 

Donald K. Emmerson, Director of APARC’s Southeast Asia Program 

At Stanford, in addition to his work for the Southeast Asia Program and his affiliations with CDDRL and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Donald Emmerson has taught courses on Southeast Asia in East Asian Studies, International Policy Studies, and Political Science. He is active as an analyst of current policy issues involving Asia. In 2010 the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars awarded him a two-year Research Associateship given to “top scholars from across the United States” who “have successfully bridged the gap between the academy and policy.”

Thomas Fingar, Center Fellow, APARC 

Thomas Fingar is a Shorenstein APARC Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He was the inaugural Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow from 2010 through 2015 and the Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford in 2009.

 

Oriana Skylar Mastro, FSI Center Fellow at APARC 

Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). Within FSI, she works primarily in the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) as well. She is also a fellow in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an inaugural Wilson Center China Fellow.

 

Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Director of APARC’s Japan Program 
Kiyoteru Tsutsui is the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor and Senior Fellow in Japanese Studies at Shorenstein APARC, the Director of the Japan Program at APARC, a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Professor of Sociology, all at Stanford University.

 

 

Moderator

Gi-Wook Shin, Director of APARC and the Korea Program

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