In this eighteenth session of the Strategic Forum, former senior American and South Korean government officials and other leading experts will discuss current developments in the Korean Peninsula and North Korea policy, the future of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, and a strategic vision for Northeast Asia. The session is hosted by the Korea Program in association with The Sejong Institute, a top South Korean think tank.

In this seventeenth session of the Strategic Forum, former senior American and South Korean government officials and other leading experts will discuss current developments in the Korean Peninsula and North Korea policy, the future of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, and a strategic vision for Northeast Asia. The session is hosted by the Korea Program in association with The Sejong Institute, a top South Korean think tank.

The report from this session is avaiable here to download.

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Tom Plate is a university professor, a veteran columnist focused on Asia and America, and an educational innovator. A Los Angeles resident, this full-time Clinical Professor and Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies at Loyola Marymount University has orchestrated live interactive seminars with major universities across Asia, as part of LMU’s path-finding Asia Media International Center. He teaches courses on the United Nations, and on Asia and on its media, and is the author of 13 books, including the bestsellers Confessions of an American Media Man (2007) and four volumes in the ‘Giants of Asia’ series; and The Fine Art of the Political Interview (2015), all published by Marshall Cavendish Editions. 

Born in New York, he was educated at Amherst College, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and Princeton University, where he was awarded his professional degree in public and international affairs. He has received a number of major journalistic recognitions, including from the American Society of Newspaper Editors its annual Deadline Writing Award.

Books will be available for sale at the event

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Please note that this event will take place in Beijing, P.R.C. at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

Some of the world’s most critical flashpoints are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific today. The 2017 Lee Shau Kee World Leaders Forum will examine East Asia’s geopolitical volatilities in the context of China’s rapid rise while assessing the evolving role of the United States in the region. The Forum will first include remarks by the Director of FSI and former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Michael A. McFaul, on the historical origins and contemporary consequences of President Trump’s worldview. A panel discussion will follow with leading policy experts, including the Director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative, Shorenstein APARC, and former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry; Associate Professor and Vice President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University, Yu Tiejun; William J. Perry Fellow in the Korea Program at Shorenstein APARC and former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Kathleen Stephens; Executive Director of the China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea and Dean of the School of International Relations at Nanjing University, Zhu Feng; and Shorenstein APARC Fellow at FSI and former chairman of the National Intelligence Council and Assistant Secretary of State of Intelligence and Research, Thomas Fingar.  The expert panel will examine the current state of U.S.-China relations in this increasingly turbulent region.

The Lee Shau Kee World Leaders Forum is an annual event established to raise public understanding of the complex issues China and other countries face in the course of rapid development. The purpose of the Lee Shau Kee World Leaders Forum is to foster engagement among government, academic, private sector and civil society leaders on pressing challenges of global importance that demand creative and innovative solutions.

This year’s event also marks the Tenth Anniversary of the China Program and the Fifth Anniversary of the Stanford Center at Peking University.

Agenda

2:00-2:15 PM                     Welcome remarks

2:15-3:15 PM                     Keynote Address: The Historical Origins and Contemporary Consequences of

                                               President Trump's Worldview, Ambassador Michael A. McFaul

3:15-3:30 PM                     Break

3:30-5:30 PM                     Panel Discussion: The United States, China, and the Asia-Pacific Region

                                                Amb. Karl Eikenberry

                                                Dr. Yu Tiejun

                                                Amb. Kathleen Stephens

                                                Dr. Zhu Feng

                                                Dr. Thomas Fingar

Please note that this event will take place in Beijing, P.R.C. at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

Abstract

Speculation about the course of cross-Strait relations after the upcoming 19^th Chinese Communist Party Congress ranges from greater PRC flexibility to substantially increased pressure on Taiwan. The Mainland’s persistent suspicion about President Tsai Ing-wen’s motives has only deepened with her appointment of avowed independence supporter Lai Ching-te as premier, especially because of the prospect that Lai could eventually become president. As a result, once the internal tugging and hauling leading up to the Party Congress has been settled, some people predict that Beijing will resort to military intimidation or even actual use of force to bring Tsai to heel. What are the PRC’s goals? What are Taipei’s? What role can and should the United States play in seeking not only to avoid conflict but to reestablish a reliable level of stability in cross-Strait relations and to prevent Taiwan from once more becoming a highly divisive issue in U.S.-PRC relations? Alan Romberg will address these issues in his talk on October 30^th.

Bio

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Alan Romberg is a Distinguished Fellow and the Director of the East Asia program at Stimson. Before joining Stimson in September 2000, he enjoyed a distinguished career working on Asian issues including 27 years in the State Department, with over 20 years as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. Romberg was the Principal Deputy Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Deputy Spokesman of the department. He served in various capacities dealing with East Asia, including director of the Office of Japanese Affairs, member of the Policy Planning staff for East Asia, and staff member at the National Security Council for China. He served overseas in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Additionally, Romberg spent almost 10 years as the CV Starr Senior Fellow for Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and was special assistant to the secretary of the navy.

Romberg holds an M.A. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

This event is co-sponsored by the Taiwan Democracy Project in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative in the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), both part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.