FSI researchers strive to understand how countries relate to one another, and what policies are needed to achieve global stability and prosperity. International relations experts focus on the challenging U.S.-Russian relationship, the alliance between the U.S. and Japan and the limitations of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
Foreign aid is also examined by scholars trying to understand whether money earmarked for health improvements reaches those who need it most. And FSI’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center has published on the need for strong South Korean leadership in dealing with its northern neighbor.
FSI researchers also look at the citizens who drive international relations, studying the effects of migration and how borders shape people’s lives. Meanwhile FSI students are very much involved in this area, working with the United Nations in Ethiopia to rethink refugee communities.
Trade is also a key component of international relations, with FSI approaching the topic from a slew of angles and states. The economy of trade is rife for study, with an APARC event on the implications of more open trade policies in Japan, and FSI researchers making sense of who would benefit from a free trade zone between the European Union and the United States.
No longer satisfied with China's role as the "world's factory", Chinese government leaders have launched a campaign for 2010 focused on "independent innovation". The goal is to reduce dependence on foreign technology by creating higher value-added home-grown products, services, and technologies.
From an unprecedented number of start-ups to a rising class of billion-dollar giants going global, high technology companies in China have a dramatically increasing need for effective leadership. Since 1999, founders have led 24 Chinese firms to IPOs on NASDAQ, ranging from portals such as Sina and AsiaInfo in 2000 to mobile hardware makers and service providers like Hurray!, Vimicro, and Techfaith in 2005.
Kumiko Yoshioka is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2006-07. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, she has worked for the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper company. She has belonged to the electronic media and broadcasting division and engaged in editing the news website, "asahi.com", and managing news services via internet to cell phones. Yoshioka completed her undergraduate study at Hosei University in Tokyo where she majored in business administration.
Takashi Yamada is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2006-07. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he held positions at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), government of Japan, for about ten years, where he took charge of policymaking. His latest position at METI was as deputy directory in the public relations office, MInister's Secretariat. He did his undergraduate study at Osaka University, in the faculty of Engineering Science.
Seigo Yagi is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2006-07. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he has worked at the Kansai Electric Power Company, Inc. (KEPCO) since 1998. He has been in charge of developing new business regarding renewable energies such as solar, wind, biomass, in the Renewable Energy Generation and ECO-Business Strategy Group. His experience at KEPCO also includes working in some construction projects on electric power plants in Japan and other Asian country as a civil engineer. He received bachelors and masters degrees in civil engineering from Osaka University.
Jun Wang is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2006-07. He is a deputy chief engineer of Refining & Marketing Company, Petrochina, where he has worked for thirteen years, focusing on development plan and project investment of refining & marketing. Wang is a PhD candidate on Refining Engineering from Petroleum University of China.
Osamu Kishiyama is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2006-07. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he has been with Sumitomo Corporation for nine years. He currently serves as senior staff in the net business department, which is responsible for incubating, developing, and investing in the business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sectors of the e-marketing and media contents business areas. Kishiyama completed his undergraduate study at Hokkaido University in Hokkaido where he majored in economics, with a focus on accounting.
Masao Hoshino is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2006-07. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he has worked for the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper company, as a journalist for twelve years. For the past six years, Hoshino has belonged to the economic news department and has been mainly responsible for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Bank of Japan, and the Financial Services Agency. Hoshino has covered many economic issues, such as the highway public corporation privatization, the government investment, monetary policy, and banking systems.
He graduated from Waseda University with a major in journalism.
Dr. Hakjoon Kim has been President and Publisher of Dong-A Ilbo (East Asia Daily) since 2001. His career has spanned the fields of journalism, public policy and academia. After earning his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1972, Kim spend a year as a research associate as the university's Asian Studies Program in the University Center for International Studies and as a research assistant professor in the Department of Political Science. In 1973 he returned to Korea and spent the next 16 years as a professor and a visiting scholar at various universities in Korea and then in Japan, the United States, Germany, Austria, and London.
In 1989, Kim was elected to the Korean National Assembly and became the chief policy assistant, press secretary, and spokesperson for the president of Korea. In 1993 he rejoined the academic world as chairperson of the board of directors and professor at Dankook University while still keeping one foot in the policy world as advisor to the Korean Ministry of Unification and then to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Affairs.
During this time, Dr. Kim was also publishing books in English on Korean politics, books in Korean on the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, and publishing articles in numerous journals, such as Asian Survey (UC Berkeley), Journal of Northeast Asian Studies (Washington, D.C.), Japan Review of International Affairs (Tokyo), Korea and World Affairs (Seoul), Security Dialogue (Oslo), Far Eastern Affairs (Moscow) and other professional journals. In 1983 he won the Best Book Prize, which was awarded by the Korean Political Science Association for his book Han'guk Chongch'i Ron (On Korean Politics,) Seoul, 1983.
Philippines Conference Room
Against the backdrop of export-led growth of some economies -- most notably China and India -- human development issues in Asia tend to be overlooked. The 2006 report Trade on Human Terms, produced by the United Nations Development Programme, finds that trade has contributed to further increasing the inequality both between and within countries. In addition, it warns that many of the region's open economies, particularly the East Asian success stories, are creating far fewer jobs, especially for youth and women, and experiencing "jobless growth." Many of the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific are now net importers of agricultural products; food security has thus become an emerging issue.
While Asia and the Pacific have embraced globalization, the regions poor are being left behind and will be so without determined action by governments. The report recommends that those countries adopt bold new policies that harness trade and economic growth, suggesting an "eight-point agenda" that includes investing for competitiveness; adopting strategic trade policies; restoring a focus on agriculture; combating jobless growth; and others.
Dr. Hafiz A. Pasha will discuss the findings and recommendations of this ground-breaking and thoughtful report which can be viewed at:
Asia - Pacific Human Development Report 2006
Dr. Hafiz A. Pasha is UN assistant secretary-general and UNDP assistant administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. He has served as the commerce and trade minister, minister for finance and economic affairs, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, and education minister in three government administrations in Pakistan.
Prior to his government work, Dr. Pasha was the vice chancellor/president of the University of Karachi and dean and director of the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, Pakistan.
Dr. Pasha has published extensively in the fields of trade, public finance, social development, and poverty reduction. He has an M.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Pasha was recently awarded the Congressional Medal of Achievement by the Philippines Congress in recognition of his work on poverty reduction, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the Asia-Pacific countries and his role in leading UNDP's response to the 2004 tsunami tragedy.
Philippines Conference Room
