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Background: Substance abuse has been an important social and public health problem in Thailand for decades. The National Household Survey on Substance and Alcohol Use in Thailand, which has been conducted 5 times, shows that substance abuse has steadily increased. Extrapolated country-wide in recent data, the estimated number of people who had ever used at least one addictive substance at some time in their life was 3,531,436 or 7.30% of the total population aged 12-65 years. Krathom, Methamphetamine, Ice, and cannabis were the most prevalent substances of abuse.

Methods: Historical documentation, policy reports, and group discussion with key professionals who work in the substance abuse community were used in this study. The objectives of this study were to complete a document review, determine the effectiveness of previous  Thai illegal substance measures, and consider options for the future.

Findings: Although the Thai government has dedicated human resources and an enormous budget to controlling drug use, substance abuse has become a more severe problem when compared with previous years. There are many organizations trying to create and develop programs, measures, and policies for dealing with substance abuse. These policies usually have had loopholes which resulted in corruption of officers, undercutting the public health value, creating dilemmas for impoverished families experiencing drug abuse, ignoring human rights, and creating a negative attitude among society toward drug users. Barriers to establishing successful drug abuse policies in Thailand include limited access to data and data management, a lack of efficiency and cost-benefit measures and policies, and limited use of evidence-based research.

Conclusion: To address illegal substance abuse in the future, the stakeholders should work to reduce the incidence of new sellers and the prevalence of new users. This would result in diminishing the health impact and criminal aspect of illegal substance use, increase social awareness, and motivate communities to participate in managing this issue. To reach these goals, the policy should concurrently aim at curtailing the supply of illicit drugs and reducing their demand. The strategies relevant to drug policy consist of primary prevention, services for chronic drug users, supply control and regulations, prescription regimes, and the use of criminal sanctions, especially consideration of decriminalization of krathom use.

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Darika Saingam is a researcher from Thailand. Her research works have focused on patterns and consequences of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal substance use. Currently she joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as the Developing Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2015-16 year. She completed her doctorate in epidemiology at the Prince of Songkla University in 2012, and has worked as a researcher at the University’s epidemiology unit since, as well as a researcher at the Thailand Substance Abuse Academic Network since 2014.

Darika Saingam 2015-16 Developing Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow
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Yoichi Funabashi, former editor-in-chief of the Asahi Shimbun, has been named the 2015 recipient of the Shorenstein Journalism Award. The award, given annually by Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), is conferred to a journalist who has produced outstanding reporting on Asia and has contributed significantly to Western understanding of the region.

“Both as a correspondent in Beijing, Washington and Tokyo, and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and later as the editor of the Asahi Shimbun, Yoichi Funabashi set a standard for thoughtful, well-informed, excellent journalism,” said Orville Schell, a director at the Asia Society and member of the jury that selects the award. “In many ways, he was the heart and soul of what made the Asahi the great paper it is.

“But, even more impressive was the way that Yoichi became one of Japan’s most sophisticated and articulate cosmopolitan voices,” Schell continued. “Indeed, his linguistic ability and comfort in very diverse cultural contexts has made him one of Japan’s best and most persuasive international voices.”

“Yoichi Funabashi is one of the rare journalists whose deep knowledge of both sides of the Pacific have made him a recognized analyst and thinker in both Japan and the United States, and a valuable interpreter and interlocutor in both countries,” said Nayan Chanda, a jury member for the award and former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Thirteen journalists have received the Shorenstein award since its founding. Originally, the award was designed to honor distinguished American journalists, but since 2011, the award was re-envisioned to encompass Asian journalists who pave the way for press freedom, and have aided in the growth of mutual understanding between Asia and the United States. Among the award’s most recent recipients are Jacob Schlesinger, a senior foreign correspondent covering economics at the Wall Street Journal’s Tokyo bureau; Aung Zaw, the founder of Burmese publication the Irrawaddy; and Barbara Demick, the Los Angeles Times correspondent in Beijing and author of ground-breaking studies of life in North Korea.

Funabashi began his career as a correspondent for Japan’s leading newspaper the Asahi Shimbun in Beijing from 1980 to 1981 and later served for seven years in two stints in Washington, D.C. From 2007 to 2010, Funabashi served as the editor-in-chief of the Asahi.

Funabashi is the co-founder and chairman of the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a Tokyo-based think tank established in response to the Fukushima disaster of March 2011.

Funabashi is an acclaimed author/editor of many books on East Asia and the United States. Some of his English titles include: The Peninsula Question (Brooking Institution, 2007), Reconciliation in Asia-Pacific, ed. (U.S. Institute of Peace, 2003), and Alliance Adrift Council (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1998). Funabashi received a bachelor's degree from the University of Tokyo in 1968 and a doctorate from Keio University in 1992. He has held fellowships at universities and think tanks, including Harvard University and the Institute for International Economics.

Funabashi is a frequent contributor to publications such as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, New York Times, Washington Quarterly and Foreign Affairs. He is a contributing editor of Foreign Policy in Washington, D.C. In 1994, he won the Japan Press Award known as Japan’s “Pulitzer Prize” for his columns on international affairs.

Funabashi will receive the Shorenstein award at a special evening ceremony at Stanford’s Bechtel Conference Center on May 6. He will also lead a panel discussion earlier that day examining contemporary U.S.-Japan relations. The panel discussion is open to the public.

Please refer to the Shorenstein APARC website in the coming weeks for more detail about the upcoming events. Media related questions may be directed to Lisa Griswold, lisagris@stanford.edu or (650) 736-0656.

 

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Yoichi Funabashi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 2012.
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Divided Lenses: Screen Memories of War in East Asia is the first attempt to explore how the tumultuous years between 1931 and 1953 have been recreated and renegotiated in cinema. This period saw traumatic conflicts such as the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War, and the Korean War, and pivotal events such as the Rape of Nanjing, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of which left a lasting imprint on East Asia and the world. By bringing together a variety of specialists in the cinemas of East Asia and offering divergent yet complementary perspectives, the book explores how the legacies of war have been reimagined through the lens of film.

This turbulent era opened with the Mukden Incident of 1931, which signaled a new page in Japanese militaristic aggression in East Asia, and culminated with the Korean War (1950–1953), a protracted conflict that broke out in the wake of Japan's post–World War II withdrawal from Korea. Divided Lenses explores how the intervening decades have continued to shape politics and popular culture throughout East Asia and the world. Essays in part I examine historical trends at work in various "national" cinemas, including China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the United States. Those in part 2 focus on specific themes such as comfort women in Chinese film, the Nanjing Massacre, or nationalism, and how they have been depicted or renegotiated in contemporary films. Of particular interest are contributions drawing from other forms of screen culture, such as television and video games.

This book is an outcome of the conference, Divided Lenses: Film and War Memory in Asia, that the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center hosted in December 2008, part of the Divided Memories and Reconciliation research project.

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Incompetent and dishonest politicians are common in developing countries. Scholars who write about corruption and poor governance tend to take the existence of bad politicians as a given and focus on the damage that they do. Few study the ways in which politicians are recruited in order to improve that process. Some scholars acknowledge the need to encourage the creation of a political class that is competent and honest. But none have gone further by conducting real-world experiments to evaluate the efficacy of screening and incentivizing competent and virtuous citizens to stand for public office, that is, how to nudge good people to become politicians in the first place.

Dr. Ravanilla will describe a policy intervention designed to attract able and ethical candidates to public service. Can a leadership-training workshop and non-monetary status rewards be used to screen and motivate good people to serve the public good? His answer is yes. The results of a randomized field experiment among youth running for an elective post in the Philippines show that such an intervention is indeed feasible and can be effective in motivating able and moral individuals to seek public office while at the same time discouraging candidates who do not meet these criteria.

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Nico Ravanilla will begin an assistant professorship in the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, in September 2016.  The Southeast Asia Research Group named him a Young Southeast Asia Fellow for 2015-16.  He earned his PhD in political science and public policy at the University of Michigan in 2015.

Nico Ravanilla 2015-16 Shorenstein APARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
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David Shear, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, visited Stanford on Jan. 22 for a daylong series of discussions on the state of U.S. defense strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shear facilitated a closed-door dialogue with Stanford-based senior military fellows studying national security issues at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Hoover Institution.

Shear also met with faculty members of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and delivered a lecture to a packed audience at Encina Hall.

The events were sponsored by the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative led by Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. The initiative seeks to produce research outcomes and constructive interaction between academic and governmental experts on security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region. More information about the initiative can be found here.

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(L) David Shear, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, listens to a question posed by an audience member; (R) Shear facilitates a closed-door dialogue with a cohort of Senior Military Fellows at Stanford.
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In 2015, Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) is celebrating its 20th anniversary since its historical inauguration in 1995. The NHI program, which provides universal health coverage (UHC) to Taiwan’s population of 23 million, has had a profound impact on Taiwan's health care market.   This seminar will showcase Taiwan's NHI scheme, the challenges encountered, and the market responses.

The single-payer NHI program, operated by National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), was established through integrating three existing social insurance schemes and extended the coverage to the then uninsured 43% of the population. Taiwan NHI offers comprehensive benefit coverage that includes ambulatory care as well as inpatient services. On the service side, Taiwan has a market-oriented health care delivery system, reflecting its free-enterprise economy, as evidenced by the pluralistic organization of health services. Hospital ownership is mixed where public hospitals only account for 35% of all beds. Sixty-three percent of allopathic physicians are salaried employees of hospitals; the remainder, fee-for-service private practitioners. Over the years, hospitals have developed large outpatient departments and affiliated clinics for primary care in order to maintain inpatient volume and compete with private practitioners who operate free-standing clinics with beds. There is no gate keeping mechanism and the insured essentially enjoy complete freedom of choice which is likely a source of overuse.

NHI revenue mainly relies on payroll-based premiums, supplemented by a levy on non-payroll income and government subsidies. In 2013, NHI spent roughly NTD 492 (USD 16.4) billion on medical claims, accounting for approximately 52% of national health expenditures, and in total, Taiwan devoted 6.6% of GDP to health.  As a single payer, NHIA has effectively exploited its market power to experiment with various payment reforms in its 20-year history.  NHIA gradually set up separate global budgets for dental services, Chinese medicines, primary care services, and hospital services since 1998.  The annual growth rate of the total NHI budget is negotiated among stakeholders. 

Our seminar will look to the future with presentations on innovative healthcare delivery models and coping strategies by private hospitals.

Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Center Fellow at the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research
Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research
Faculty Affiliate at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
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Karen Eggleston is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Asia Health Policy Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at FSI. She is also a Fellow with the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Her research focuses on government and market roles in the health sector and Asia health policy, especially in China, India, Japan, and Korea; healthcare productivity; and the economics of the demographic transition.

Eggleston earned her PhD in public policy from Harvard University and has MA degrees in economics and Asian studies from the University of Hawaii and a BA in Asian studies summa cum laude (valedictorian) from Dartmouth College. Eggleston studied in China for two years and was a Fulbright scholar in Korea. She served on the Strategic Technical Advisory Committee for the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the WHO regarding health system reforms in the PRC.

Director of the Asia Health Policy Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Stanford Health Policy Associate
Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University, June and August of 2016
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Moderator Director, Asia Health Policy Program, Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center, Stanford University
Jui-fen Rachel Lu Professor, Department of Health Care Management Speaker Chang Gung University, Taiwan
C. Jason Wang Associate Professor (General Pediatric), Co-Chair, Mobile Health and Other New Technologies, Center for Population Health Sciences Speaker Stanford University
Fred Hung-Jen Yang Visiting Fellow, APARC, Stanford University Speaker CEO, MissionCare, Taiwan
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The Japan Program held the third annual Stanford Summer Juku on Japanese Political Economy from August 10-13. Over 40 scholars from various parts of the US and Japan participated in the conference, which took place at the Bechtel Conference Center at Encina Hall. The first two days focused on political science and the second day on economics. Distinctive features of the Summer Juku are the long times allotted to each paper to allow for two in-depth discussants and discussion among participants, as well as ample time for informal discussions and interactions among participants allowing for collaborations and expansion of the network of researchers on Japan in political science and economics. Particularly notable this year was a large number of cross-disciplinary and cross-national collaborations between scholars ranging from political science, economics, management, infomatics, and medicine.

The first day included four papers in political science. Amy Catalinac from New York University presented her paper, "Positioning Under Alternative Electoral Systems: Evidence from 7,497 Japanese Candidate Election Manifestos", with discussants Gary Cox (Stanford) and Harukata Takenaka (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan).

Daniel Smith (Harvard University) presented a paper co-authored by Yusaku Horiuchi (Dartmouth College) and Teppei Yamamoto (MIT) entitled "Identifying Multidimensional Policy Preferences of Voters in Representative Democracies: A Cojoint Field Experiment in Japan". The Discussants for the paper were Kay Shimizu (Columbia University) and Karen Jusko (Stanford).

Harukata Takenaka from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies presented his paper on “Changes in Power of Japanese Prime Minister: Still Away from a Westminster Model.” Tsuneo Akaha (Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey) and Kenji Kushida (Stanford University) were the discussants.

The fourth paper was “Territorial Issues and Support for the Prime Minister: A survey Experiment on Rally-‘Round-the Flag Effect in Japan” by Tetsuro Kobayashi (National Institute of Informatics, Japan) and Azusa Katagiri (Stanford), discussed by Tsuneo Akaha (Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey) and Daniel Smith (Harvard).

The second day focused on political economy and international relations. Gene Park (Loyola Marymount University, and former Shorenstein Fellow at APARC) presented his paper co-authored with Saori Katada (University of Southern California) and Giacomo Chiozza (Vanderbilt University) entitled “Policy ideas and monetary policy: The Bank of Japan's delayed break with the monetary orthodoxy". Discussants were Azusa Katagiri (Stanford) and Ayako Saiki (De Netherlandsche Bank).

The second paper of the day was "The Political Economy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Implications beyond Economics" by Hiroki Takeuchi (Southern Methodist University), discussed by Kay Shimizu (Columbia University) and Gene Park (Loyola Marymount University). 

After lunch, Llewelyn Hughes (Australian National University) presented "Lead Markets, Vertical Specialization, and Standards Competition in Electric Vehicles" with discussants Kenji Kushida (Stanford University) and Phillip Lipscy (Stanford University). The final session was "Renegotiating the World Order: Institutional Change in International Relations” which were select chapters from a book manuscript by Phillip Lipscy (Stanford University). The discussants were Amy Catalinac (New York University) and Llewelyn Hughes (Australian National University). A group dinner followed the second day.

The third day was the kick-off for economics papers, where we also saw cross-disciplinary collaborations with colleagues from the US and Japan.

Karen Eggleston (Stanford University) presented “Medical spending and health care utilization in Japan, 2010-2014: Projections from Future Elderly Model microsimulation”, which was co-authored by Hawre Jajal (Stanford University), Brian K. Chen (University of Southern California), Hideki Hashimoto (University of Tokyo), Toshiaki Iizuka (University of Tokyo), Lena Shoemaker (Stanford University), and Jay Bhattacharya (Stanford University). Yong Suk Lee (Stanford University) was the discussant.

The second paper, "The adverse effects of value-based purchasing in health care: dynamic quantile regression with endogeneity" by Galina Besstremyannaya (Visiting Scholar, Stanford University), was discussed by Jay Battacharya (Stanford University) and Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University).

The third paper was ""How Do Agricultural Markets Respond to Radiation Risk? Evidence from the 2011 Disaster in Japan" by Kayo Tajima (Rikkyo University), Masashi Yamamoto (University of Toyama), and Daisuke Ichinose (Rikkyo University). Discussants for the paper presented by Tajima were Satoshi Koibuchi (Chuo University and Visiting Scholar, Stanford University) and Yong Suk Lee (Stanford University).

The final paper for the third day was "Shocks and Shock Absorbers in Japanese Bonds and Banks During the Global Financial Crisis" by Hyonok Kim (Tokyo Keizai University), Yukihiro Yasuda (Hitotsubashi University), and James A. Wilcox (University of California, Berkeley). Discussants were Sabrina Howell (New York University) and Suparna Chakraborty (University of San Francisco).

The final day included two papers. The first was "Impact of Financial Intermediary's Information Production on Market Value of Firm: Case Studies on the DBJ's Liquidity Providing During the Financial Crisis and the Environmental Rating of Firm" by Hiroaki Suzuoka (Development Bank of Japan), Atsushi Motohashi (Development Bank of Japan), Shinya Nakamura (Development Bank of Japan), Tomoya Maruoka (Development Bank of Japan), and Takamasa Uesugi (Development Bank of Japan), presented by Takamasa Uesugi. Discussants were Jess Diamond (Hitotsubashi University) and Masami Imai (Wesleyan University). The final paper was "Selective Disclosure: The Case of Nikkei Preview Articles" by William N. Goetzmann (Yale School of Management), Yasushi Hamao (University of Southern California), and Hidenori Takahashi (Kobe University), presented by Yasushi Hamao. Eiichiro Kazumori (University of Buffalo) was the discussant.

After the completion of four days of Summer Juku, participants who had enough time before their flights held an “uchiage” (completion celebration) gathering—a tradition at the conclusion of the Summer Juku—at “The Patio” in downtown Palo Alto for further informal exchange over drinks and appetizers.

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The participants of the Stanford Summer Juku held in August, 2015
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Why has Korean pop music (K-Pop) become so popular overseas? A wide variety of explanations have been proposed by academics, journalists and the fans themselves, ranging from superior training and product quality to the strategic usage of social media. Although some of these explanations have become widely-cited especially in the Korean media, whether or not they are actually correct remains largely unknown. To demystify why K-Pop has gained a following overseas, this study examines data on K-Pop concert booking overseas, from 2011 through 2014. The findings highlight the importance of cultural proximity, while casting doubt upon several other widely-cited explanations.

Joon Nak Choi is the 2015-2016 Koret Fellow in the Korea Program at Stanford's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC). A Stanford graduate and sociologist by training, Choi is an assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research and teaching areas include economic development, social networks, organizational theory, and global and transnational sociology, within the Korean context. He recently coauthored Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea which he developed the manuscript from 2010-11 while he was a William Perry postdoctoral fellow at APARC.

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Koret Foundation.

Shorenstein APARC
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Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Joon Nak Choi is the 2015-2016 Koret Fellow in the Korea Program at Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC). A sociologist by training, Choi is an assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research and teaching areas include economic development, social networks, organizational theory, and global and transnational sociology, within the Korean context.

Choi, a Stanford graduate, has worked jointly with professor Gi-Wook Shin to analyze the transnational bridges linking Asia and the United States. The research project explores how economic development links to foreign skilled workers and diaspora communities.

Most recently, Choi coauthored Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea with Shin, who is also the director of the Korea Program. From 2010-11, Choi developed the manuscript while he was a William Perry postdoctoral fellow at Shorenstein APARC.

During his fellowship, Choi will study the challenges of diversity in South Korea and teach a class for Stanford students. Choi’s research will buttress efforts to understand the shifting social and economic patterns in Korea, a now democratic nation seeking to join the ranks of the world’s most advanced countries.
 
Supported by the Koret Foundation, the Koret Fellowship brings leading professionals to Stanford to conduct research on contemporary Korean affairs with the broad aim of strengthening ties between the United States and Korea. The fellowship has expanded its focus to include social, cultural and educational issues in Korea, and aims to identify young promising scholars working on these areas.

 

2015-2016 Koret Fellow
Visiting Scholar
2015 Koret Fellow 2015 Koret Fellow, Korea Program, APARC, Stanford
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Note: This event is open to Stanford community members only.

Stanford ID required for entry.

Remarks are off the record. Recording, reporting and citation of remarks is strictly prohibited.

 

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rior to his confirmation in July 2014, Mr. Shear served for 32 years in the Foreign Service, most recently as the United States Ambassador to Vietnam. He has also been posted to Sapporo, Beijing, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur. In Washington, he has served in the Offices of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Affairs and as the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. He was Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs in 2008-2009 and Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in 2009-2011.

 

Mr. Shear was a Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s institute for the Study of Diplomacy 1998-99. He is the recipient of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and the Defense Department’s Civilian Meritorious Service Award for his work in U.S.-Japan defense relations. 

 

Mr. Shear graduated from Earlham College and has a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He also attended Waseda University, Taiwan National University, and Nanjing University. 

 

 

David B. Shear U.S. Department of Defense, <i>Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs</i>
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