As the U.S.-India relationship continues to grow into the 21st century, a new regional construct has the potential for developing along with it. At the confluence of India's Act East foreign policy and the United States' strategic rebalance to Asia lies the relatively undefined domain of the Indo-Pacific. This seminar will touch upon the efforts of the Obama Administration to further this "defining partnership of the 21st century", and then delve into the potential future of the Indo-Pacific and the strategic implications and challenges of a developing Indo-Pacific reality from political, economic, security, and technological perspectives

 

Philip James Reiner is an Affiliate at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, and serves as a consultant to both the private and public sectors. He previously served as Senior Director for South Asia at the National Security Council (NSC), where he successfully led U.S. government efforts to revitalize the U.S.-India bilateral relationship, and oversaw two head-of-state level engagements including the groundbreaking visit of President Obama as Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2015. Prior to his appointment as Senior Director, Mr. Reiner served at the NSC for three years, first as Director for Pakistan and then as Senior Advisor for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In these capacities, he helped to manage the war-time requirements of effectively staffing the President, the National Security Advisor, and senior White House and NSC leadership, while helping to lead team efforts to sustain an international coalition of more than 40 countries in Afghanistan, with functional focus on both counterterrorism and countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He also played an instrumental role in managing significant bilateral and regional crises and helping to reset and rebalance U.S.-Pakistan relations after the tensions of 2011.

Prior to joining the White House, Mr. Reiner worked in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, where he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service; and at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. Mr. Reiner holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Religions with a minor in History from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and daughter.

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Center for International Security and Cooperation 

The dramatic victory of the Narendra Modi-led BharatiJanata Party – the biggest single-party majority in thirty years in the national election – has shaken up South Asia’s diplomatic scene. Inviting leaders from neighboring South Asia to his inauguration, visiting Brasilia, Tokyo, and Washington, before welcoming Chinese president Xi Jinping – all within four months of taking power  - Modi has imparted a new dynamism in Indian foreign policy.  His second summit with President Obama within four months when Obama was invited as chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade and their joint statement implicitly critical of China has stirred concern and enthusiasm about an Indo-US alliance. In this presentation, Dr. Chanda will examine the direction of India’s relations with China in the new global context.

 

For nearly thirty years before he joined Yale University, Mr. Chanda was with the Hong Kong-based magazine the Far Eastern Economic Review as its editor, editor-at-large and correspondent. In 1989-90 Chanda was a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. From 1990-1992 Chanda was editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, published from New York. He is the author of Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers and Warriors Shaped Globalization. He is also the author of Brother Enemy: The War After the War and co-author of over a dozen books on Asian politics, security and foreign policy including Soldiers and Stability in Southeast Asia and The Political Economy of Foreign Policy In Southeast Asia and The International Relations of Asia. He co-edited with Strobe Talbott The Age of Terror: America and the World After September 11.

Chanda writes a fortnightly column 'Bound Together' in India's BusinessWorld magazine and Singapore Straits Times. He is an occasional contributor to the opinion page of the International Herald Tribune and is a member of the editorial board of GlobalAsia , New Global Studies journal. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the recipient of the Shorenstein Journalism Award for 2005.