The role of location is gaining attention as a contributor to firm and industry competitiveness. A number of researchers have linked innovation and productivity to the geographic clustering of firms. While a variety of industry clusters in the United States and abroad have been studied, seldom have they been considered within the context of global competition. Global competition complicates the location decision. Drawing on extensive evidence from the hard disk drive industry, including information on the complete population of firms since the industry's inception, this presentation offers a framework for understanding the dynamics of industry location in international competition. David McKendrick is Research Director of the Information Storage Industry Center at the University of California, San Diego. His current research focuses on the role of location in competitive advantage, the effects of geographic dispersion on innovation and learning in multinational corporations, and the evolution of international competition. Prior to joining UCSD, he taught in the business schools at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Dallas. He received his Ph.D. in business from the University of California, Berkeley.

Foreign-born engineers are a significant and fast growing presence in Silicon Valley. This talk will examine how first generation Chinese and Indian immigrants--who represent one-third of the engineering workforce in the region--have integrated into the local economy while simultaneously building long-distance linkages to regions in Asia. AnnaLee Saxenian is a Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley and an internationally recognized expert on regional economic development and the information technology sector. Her current research examines the contributions of skilled immigrants to Silicon Valley and their growing ties to regions in Asia. Her recent publications include Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. She has written extensively about innovation and regional development, urbanization, and the organization of labor markets in the San Francisco Bay Area. Saxenian is the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research for the 1999-2000 academic year. She holds a Doctorate in Political Science from MIT, a Master's degree in Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley, and a BA in Economics from Williams College in Massachusetts.

The Vietnam IT Forum 2001 will present an overview of Vietnam's infomation technology industry and its potential for U.S. participation. The conference showcases the emergence of Vietnam, particularly the technology sector and fetures the opportunities and challenges presented by these developments. The conference will examine the Bilateral trade Agreement, along with opportunities in softwre development, multimedia, telecommunications, networking, Internet/e-business, outsourcing, and foreign direct investment and financing. To indicate your interest in attending, please contact Q. Huy D. Do, Attorney-at-Law, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP. Tel: 415-954-0343, Fax: 415-391-2493, Email: qdo@ssd.com ***** THIS EVENT IS BY INVITATION ONLY. *****

Inside Burma, the armed forces have established a chokehold on political power unrivalled in the world. The latest incarnation of junta rule emerged in 1988 following the bloody repression of a nationwide pro-democracy movement. Yet despite international revulsion, today's generals have barely been touched by its effects: the suspension of international economic assistance; the imposition of an arms embargo; and bans on new investment in Burma by Western firms. Over four decades of military rule, there have been rumors of in-fighting among officers, and of mutinies and desertions by foot soldiers. Many have concluded from such reports that the regime must inevitably fall. So far, however, such thoughts have been wishful. While elsewhere in Southeast Asia authoritarian regimes have crumbled, in Burma the junta has endured. How have Burma's generals managed to sustain their dominance for so long? Why hasn't the country's democratic opposition been able to wrest power from this regime? And why have international sanctions and prodding so utterly failed to break the stalemate in Rangoon? Mary Callahan is Assistant Professor at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies. She received her PhD in Government at Cornell University in 1996. Among her many writings are chapters civil-military relations in Burma scheduled to appear in Soldier and State in Asia (Stanford University Press, 2000) and Burma: Strong State/Weak Regime (Crawford House, 2000). Fluent in Burmese, Prof. Callahan also teaches, lectures widely, and serves as a consultant to the United Nations on political conditions in Burma.

In many markets, organizations compete with rivals from all over the world, transcending national boundaries. We offer a theory to explain patterns of global competition, proposing that global competition "coevolves" in an ecology of learning organizations. Our theory points to certain conditions under which such evolution intensifies competition, but also to patterns of adverse selection within and among organizations. We test our theory in a study of organizational failure rates among all computer hard disk drive manufacturers that have ever existed, and find that our theory is able to explain patterns of competition in that industry over its history. William P. Barnett is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He studies competitive systems within and among organizations, focusing especially on how competitiveness evolves as organizations grow and change. This research includes empirical studies of the evolution of organizational performance, the organizational and career determinants of entrepreneurship, the effects of technological and regulatory changes on competition among organizations, and how competitiveness evolves over time and across markets. His work reports on a range of firms and industries, including organizations in telecommunications, semiconductor manufacturing, beer brewing, newspaper publishing, and banking. Most recently he is studying the evolution of the computer industry. In 1988 he received his Ph.D. in Business Adminstration from the University of California, Berkeley.

In Southeast Asia over the last two centuries, Chinese traders, workers, and immigrants adapted to a changing series of local environments--pre-national, colonial, and post-colonial. At each stage, they broadened the scope of their activities. They were on the brink of working the modern global economy when the post-World War II nation-states of Southeast Asia were created. Nationalist agendas and the politics of cold and hot wars soon obliged the ethnic Chinese to make readjustments. New forms of globalization are changing the Southeast Asian environment once again. Will former strategies of survivalÑadaptations honed during the last fifty years, if not the past two hundred--help the region's ethnic Chinese to deal with globalization in the 21st century? Or will such accommodations need to be replaced? Will the ethnic Chinese mainly seek (or be obliged) to concentrate on saving themselves? Or will they be able to share their own skills and values on behalf of the viable nations and vibrant economies that Southeast Asia will need if it is to cope successfully with the new century's challenges? Wang Gungwu is Director of the East Asian Institute and Faculty Professor in Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore; Distinguished Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, also in Singapore; and Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. Previously, he was Vice-Chancellor (President) of the University of Hong Kong (1986-1995) and Professor of Far Eastern History at ANU (1968-1986). He also taught at the University of Malaya (1957-1968). His many publications include The Chinese Overseas (2000), China and Southeast Asia (1999), The Nanhai Trade (new ed., 1998), and, as coeditor, The Chinese Diaspora (2 vols, 1998) and Changing Identities of Southeast Asian Chinese since World War II (1988). Prof. Wang was born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia.

Recently the "Asia-Europe Vision Group" published its report "Asia-Europe Partnership in the 21st Century," outlining a bright, prosperous and trouble-free future of inter-regional relations. Does this rhetoric match reality or is it just wishful thinking? At least for the time being, official relations between Europe and Asia remain on a historic low. Several EU-ASEAN meetings, for instance, were cancelled. The Asian Financial Crisis, changing foreign policy strategies as well as conflicting norms and values have weakened the so-called 'third link' of the post Cold-War order. Furthermore, in many Asian capitals the Kosovo war has resulted in deep distrust of European intentions in world politics. How serious are the recent turbulences in EU relations with Southeast and Northeast Asian countries? Will they hinder the implementation of far-reaching visions and goals such as the proposed Asia-Europe Free Trade Area? Dr. Joern Dosch is a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Shorenstein APARC. He is also Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Mainz, Germany. Former affiliations include UCSD, Johns Hopkins University, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS, Singapore), Singapore, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS, Jakarta). Dr. Dosch served as a member of the board of directors, German Society of Asian Studies, and participates in various international research projects on Europe-Asia relations and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. He has published two books and ca. 20 articles on ASEAN, European and US policies in Asia, democratization in Southeast Asia and International Relations theory.