Energy geopolitics in East Asia have reflected strong competition among major energy consuming countries (China, Japan and Korea) despite the alleged necessity of energy cooperation to cope with uncertainties in the global energy market and to prevent potential conflicts regarding energy supply. Lacking abundant energy resources, South Korea has to face the tough challenges of energy supply and climate change as well as the North Korean energy and nuclear crisis. In recent years, South Korea has actively pursued overseas energy development to guarantee the stable procurement of hydrocarbon energy resources and introduced a Green Growth policy to deal with the challenges of climate change and clean energy. The Green Growth policy symbolizes a paradigm shift to cope with climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and global economic recession by creating new engines of economic growth through green technology and clean energy. Based on strong political support and policy measures, it has showed noticeable progress in a short period of time, but the transition from a hydrocarbon-based to a renewable-based economy faces enormous uncertainties and challenges. South Korea has also been active in participating East Asian energy cooperation, which is also important in dealing with the serious North Korean energy crisis.

Jae-Seung Lee is a visiting scholar with the Korean Studies Program (KSP) for the 2011–12 academic year, and he is also currently a professor of international studies at Korea University. Before joining the faculty of Korea University, he had served as a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  His current research includes energy security and energy diplomacy of Korea.

Jae-Seung Lee has authored a series of books and articles on East Asian energy security. He is a Managing Director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Institute of Sustainable Development (ISD) at Korea University and has organized the Korea Energy Forum (KEF) since 2005. Professor Lee is editor-in-chief of Korea Review of International Studies and serves as a Member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Presidential Secretariat (Foreign and Security Affairs) and Vice Director of Ilmin International Relations Institute (IIRI). Professor Lee holds a BA in political science from Seoul National University and an MA and a PhD in political science from Yale University. He has taught at Yale University, Seoul National University, and Korea University. 

This event is made possible by the generous support from the Koret Foundation.

KSP visiting scholar Hyun Jeoung Lee, a South Korean attorney and former public prosecutor, will analyze the problem of rebates by pharmaceutical companies. She will provide background on the Korean pharmaceutical industry and review the Korean government's efforts to combat the problem, including the latest legislation, regulation, and prosecution.

Hyun Jeoung Lee is an attorney at the leading Korean law firm of Kim & Chang, in the White Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group. Before joining the firm in 2007, she served as a public prosecutor for 10 years, developing expertise in a wide range of criminal law matters and was awarded honors by the Korean government, including the titles of Public Prosecutor General (2003) and Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of Justice (2006).

Lee completed her master's work in competition and antitrust laws at the Graduate School of Legal Studies at Korea University in 2006. She has extensive experience in white collar criminal defense, primarily in the areas of securities fraud, insider trading, and other corporate crimes, including fair trade regulation.

In September 2011 the U.S. bilateral alliance system in the Asia-Pacific—the “San Francisco System” (SFS)—turned 60 years old. Against the expectations of theorists who argue that alliances cannot be sustained in the absence of a commonly perceived mutual external threat, the SFS remains operative and viable. It remains so even as multilateral approaches to regional order-building in the Asia-Pacific have proliferated. Although the identity and functions of the SFS have evolved, the speakers will argue that it remains—and will remain—a critical security mechanism in the likely absence of a comprehensive and consensual regional security arrangement that could supersede it. Their remarks will convey the findings and projections of a recent study of Asia-Pacific security undertaken by  Australian National University (ANU) and supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s Asia Security Initiative.

John Ravenhill returned to ANU in 2004, after holding the chair of politics at the University of Edinburgh from 2000. He currently directs the School of Political Science and International Relations at ANU’s College of Arts and Social Sciences. Before joining ANU in 1990, he was an associate professor at the University of Sydney, and assistant professor at the University of Virginia, after completing his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.  He has held visiting professorships at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies; Nanyang Technology University, Singapore; the University of Geneva; the International University of Japan; and the University of California, Berkeley. His many articles have appeared in leading journals including World Politics, International Organization, Review of International Political Economy, Review of International Studies, New Political Economy, World Policy Journal, World Development, and International Affairs. His research interests include global political economy, especially the fields of trade and production, and Australian foreign policy.

William T. Tow came to ANU in early 2005, having been a professor of international relations (IR) at the University of Queensland and at Griffith University, and an assistant professor of IR at the University of Southern California. His visiting-scholar positions have included APARC (1999) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. Among his many writings are Politics in the Asia-Pacific: A Regional–Global Nexus? (edited, Cambridge University Press, 2009); Asia Pacific Strategic Relations: Seeking Convergent Security (Cambridge University Press, 2001); and articles in the China Journal, Review of International Studies, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, China Quarterly, International Affairs, Survival, and Asian Survey. He also heads the ANU IR component of the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, was editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, has held positions with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Fulbright Commission, and received an Australian Award for University Teaching in the Social Sciences Category.

Brendan Taylor’s writings include Sanctions as Grand Strategy (2010); American Sanctions in the Asia-Pacific (2010); and articles in Asian Security, the Australian Journal of International Affairs, International Affairs, and Survival.  In addition to leading the ANU-MacArthur Asia Security Initiative Focus Group (since 2009), he has served as associate investigator, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security; graduate studies convenor, Political Science and International Relations, ANU; and lecturer and post-doctoral fellow, SDSC.

David Envall is a Japan specialist with an interest in how foreign policy is made. He edits the ANU-MacArthur Project’s policy papers. His essays will appear in the Asian Journal of Political Science and in volumes on Australian-Japanese politico-security relations and on strategic and structural changes in the Asia-Pacific security environment.

The Asia Pacific Observatory (APO) on Health Systems and Policies was established in June 2011. It is a collaborative partnership of interested governments, international agencies, foundations, civil society, and the research community. Modeled on the European Observatory of the same name, the APO has as its main function the collection and analysis of information and research evidence on health care systems, policies, and reforms, with the aim of making this knowledge widely available and easily accessible throughout the Asia Pacific Region; it will also draw cross-country lessons and disseminate these in formats that can be directly used for policymaking.

This presentation will trace the history underlying the creation of the Observatory and indicate its objectives, organizational structure, and proposed modes of operation. It will describe the challenges of attempting to bring a wide range of stakeholders together in support of a regional collaborative research effort. It will also touch on ways that research entities located outside the Asia Pacific region might interact with the APO.

L. Richard Meyers was employed by the World Bank for two decades managing teams that carried out World Bank health sector projects and analytical work in a number of countries in East Asia. He directed a team that produced the first comprehensive health sector review for Vietnam, as well as the first Vietnam National Health Survey.  He also led a team that produced the most comprehensive and empirically-based external analysis to date of the rural health sector in China. More recently he has worked with the European Health Observatory, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the WHO Western Pacific and South Asia regional offices, and other stakeholders to facilitate the creation of the Asia Pacific Observatory.