Category: 2019-2020

“Covering the Other Half Billion: China’s Rural Sector”

Event Description

For much of post-1949 history, the rural sector has been the poor relation of China’s society and economy. Today, however, the rural sector lies at the heart of Xi Jinping’s economic agenda for China’s comprehensive development. The party’s and government’s ability to fulfil major economic goals—those relating to employment, food security and rebalancing of the economic system—depend critically on the success of its rural policies. So too does its ability to realize important social and other goals—including poverty reduction, the creation of a more inclusive society, and environmental sustainability. An economically and socially revitalised Chinese countryside will also impact the political stability which China’s leaders see as the bedrock of their continuing rule. This lecture will explore all of these dimensions.

​

Speakers

Professor Robert Ash

Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan

School of Oriental & African Studies

University of London

Moderator

Professor David Shambaugh

Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs

Director, China Policy Program

The George Washington University

Date & Time

Thursday, February 27th, 2020
4:30 PM-6:00 PM

Location

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Professor Robert Ash

Professor Robert Ash is a Professorial Fellow in the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he teaches in the School of Financial and Management Studies as Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan. From 1986 to 1995 he was Head of the Contemporary China Institute at SOAS, and from 1997-2001 was Director of the EU-China Academic Network (ECAN). From 1999 to 2013 he was also Director of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme.

Professor Ash has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France and Italy. He has been researching China for more than 40 years and has published on development issues relating to China, as well as on Taiwan and Hong Kong. His most recent major publication (2017) is a study of China’s agricultural development between 1840 and the present day, Agricultural Development in the World Periphery: A Global Economic History Approach. He has also undertaken a wide range of consultancy work in both private and public sectors—including for the British Government, the European Commission, European Parliament and the UN International Labour Organisation.

“Korean Politics 2020 – Korean Security Issues and Challenges”

Korea Policy Forum

Event Description

Domestic Politics is a key factor in shaping security and foreign policy of states. South Korea is not an exception. In the South Korean case, the dynamic domestic political geography plays a significant role in Seoul’s strategies with North Korea and the U.S-ROK Alliance. With the upcoming general elections in April, the political landscape in South Korea will be shifting in the coming months, leading to a potential repositioning of South Korea’s foreign and security policy. Dr. Young-jun Kim and Dr. Sang-hyun Lee, current and former policy advisors for the ROK government respectively, including the President’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense, will discuss the prospects of a new domestic political geography in South Korea and its potential impact on Seoul’s foreign and security policy.

Speakers

Young-jun Kim
Professor, Korea National Defense University

Sang-hyun Lee
Senior Research Fellow, The Sejong Institute

Discussant

Dr. John Merrill
Former Chief of the Northeast Asia Division, State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research

Moderator

Jisoo M. Kim
Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies

Date & Time

Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
10:00 AM-12:00 PM

Location

Room 505
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Dr. Young-jun Kim

Dr. Young-jun Kim is a Professor of the National Security College at the Korea National Defense University (KNDU). He is now a member of National Security Advisory Board for the Republic of Korea President’s Office (the Blue House) and a member of advisory board for the Department of Unification. His recent publications include Origins of the North Korean Garrison State: People’s Army and the Korean War at Routledge (2017). He is a member of the ROK-U.S.Combined Forces Commander’s Strategic Shaping Board (CSSB) and an International Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth. He is a policy advisor on North Korean issues for the National Security Office of the ROK President’s Office, the National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of National Defense (MND), National Intelligence Service, the Joint Chief of Staff and the ROK-U.S.Combined Forces Command. He is a managing editor of the new journal “The Korean Journal of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Energy” sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General-Director for the Korea Nuclear Policy Society and Korea Defense Policy Association. As Korean security expert, he has appeared on the FOX TV News, CBS TV News, BBC TV News, Wall Street Journal, the National Interest, Kyodo News and other Korean and international media.

Dr. Sang-hyun Lee

Dr. Sang-hyun Lee is a Senior Research Fellow at the Sejong Institute. Dr. Lee also serves as President of the Korea Nuclear Policy Society (KNPS). He served as Director-General for Policy Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) from May 2011 to April 2013 and policy advisor for Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Unification, and Ministry of National Defense.Dr. Lee was a research fellow at the Korean Institute for International Studies (1987-88), and the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis (1988-90). He received his B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University and Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999.

Discussant

Dr. John Merrill

Dr. John Merrill is non-resident visiting scholar at GWIKS. Dr. Merrill is the former chief of the Northeast Asia Division in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He has taught at the Foreign Service Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown University, the George Washington University, and Lafayette College. For many years, he chaired seminars on North Korean foreign policy for mid-career intelligence community analysts/managers. Merrill is the author of Korea: The Peninsular Origins of the War and The Cheju-do Rebellion (in Japanese). Merrill has a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware, an M.A. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Boston University.

Moderator

Jisoo M. Kim

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW. She received her Ph.D. in Korean History from Columbia University. She is a specialist in gender and legal history of early modern Korea. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on two book projects titled Suspicious Deaths: Forensic Medicine, Dead Bodies, and Criminal Justice in Chosŏn Korea and Sexual Desire and Gendered Subjects: Decriminalization of Adultery Law in Korean History.

Strategic Asia 2020:

The U.S.-China Competition for Global Influence

Event Description

You are invited to join us for a discussion and luncheon on the global implications of U.S.-China competition to mark the release of the nineteenth volume in the Strategic Asia series: Strategic Asia 2020: U.S.-China Competition for Global Influence, edited by Ashley J. Tellis, Alison Szalwinski, and Michael Wills.

This event will feature remarks by Strategic Asia research director, Ashley J. Tellis, as well as a panel of Strategic Asia authors discussing regional and state responses to the U.S.-China rivalry. The panel will be followed by a luncheon and keynote remarks.

Seating will be limited and served on a first-come, first-served basis. For media inquiries, please contact Dan Aum, Director of Public Affairs, at (202) 347-9767 or media@nbr.org.

Date & Location

January 30, 2020 | 10:00am–1:30pm
Registration and Book Sale from 9:30am to 10:00am

City View Room, 7th Floor
Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
1957 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Agenda

9:00am        Registration and Book Sale

10:00am      Welcome

                          Opening Remarks: Benjamin Hopkins, The George Washington University

                          Program Introduction: Michael Wills, The National Bureau of Asian Research

10:10 am      The Return of U.S.-China Strategic Competition

                           Ashley J. Tellis, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

10:30am       Regional Responses to U.S.-China Competition

                           Moderated by: Alison Szalwinski, The National Bureau of Asian Research

                           Sheila A. Smith, Council on Foreign Relations

                           Syaru Shirley Lin, The University of Virginia

                           Liselotte Odgaard, Hudson Institute

12:00pm       Luncheon served

12:30pm       Luncheon Keynote Discussion

                           Introduction: Roy Kamphausen, The National Bureau of Asian Research

                           Keynote: Heino Klinck, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia    

1:15pm         Conclusion

                           Michael Wills, The National Bureau of Asian Research

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Professor Yong-sup Han is a Professor at the Korea National Defense University (KNDU). His vast academic experience includes serving as the President of Korea Nuclear Policy Society (2012-15), Vice President of KNDU (2010-12), Director General of Research Institute for National Security Affairs, KNDU (2005-08), and President of Korea Peace Research Association (2007-10). He was Visiting Fellow to the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI); Visiting Professor of Fudan University in Shanghai China (2015.8-2016.2); Visiting Professor of China Foreign Affairs University (2009.1-2009.6); and Visiting Fellow to the U.S. RAND Corporation (1999-2000). He also served as Special Assistant to the South Korean Minister of National Defense (1993), and Senior Staff Member to the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission (1991-92). He earned his BA and MA in political science from Seoul National University (1978 and 1982), Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University (1987), and Ph.D. in Public Policy from the RAND Graduate School (1991).

Professor Young-jun Kim is a Professor of the National Security College at the Korea National Defense University (KNDU). He is now a member of National Security Advisory Board for the Republic of Korea President’s Office (the Blue House). His recent publications include Origins of the North Korean Garrison State: People’s Army and the Korean War at Routledge (2017). At the Prime Minister’s Office, he is an official reviewer of the Government Performance Review on Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Unification. He is a member of the ROK-US Combined Forces Commander’s Strategic Shaping Board (CSSB). He is Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth. He is a policy advisor on North Korean issues for the National Security Office of the ROK President’s Office, the National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of National Defense (MND), Ministry of Unification, National Intelligence Service, the Joint Chief of Staff and the ROK-US Combined Forces Command. He is a managing editor of the new journal “The Korean Journal of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Energy” sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General-Director for the Korea Nuclear Policy Society, Korea International Studies Association and Korea Defense Policy Association.

Discussant

Joanna Spear is an Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the FAO Regional Sustainment Initiative. She previously was the Director of the Elliott School’s Security Policy Studies Program and the Founding Director of the National Security Studies Program, an executive education program serving the needs of the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Dr. Spear is also an Associate Fellow at Chatham House in London. Before joining GW, Dr. Spear was Director of the Graduate Research Programme and a Senior Lecturer at the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London. In addition, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Visiting Scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Moderator

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Speaker

Ambassador Yun, recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on relations with North Korea, as well as broader U.S.-East Asia policy, most recently served as Special Representative for North Korea Policy. Currently, he is Senior Advisor with The Asia Group, a DC-based strategic consulting firm, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent and non-partisan federal institute working on peace and reconciliation issues throughout the globe. He is also a Global Affairs Commentator for the CNN. Yun’s 33-year diplomatic career has been marked by his commitment to face-to-face engagement as the best avenue for resolving conflict and advancing cross-border cooperation. As Special Representative on North Korea from 2016 to 2018, Ambassador Yun led the U.S. efforts to align regional powers behind a united policy to denuclearize North Korea. He was instrumental in reopening the “New York channel,” a direct communication line with officials from Pyongyang. As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2011-2013), Yun led efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with Myanmar. Yun also served as Ambassador to Malaysia (2013-16). Before joining the Foreign Service, Yun was a senior economist for Data Resources, Inc., in Lexington, Massachusetts. He holds a M. Phil. degree from the London School of Economics and a BS from the University of Wales.

Welcoming Remarks

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW. She received her Ph.D. in Korean History from Columbia University. She is a specialist in gender and legal history of early modern Korea. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on two book projects titled Suspicious Deaths: Forensic Medicine, Dead Bodies, and Criminal Justice in Chosŏn Korea and Sexual Desire and Gendered Subjects: Decriminalization of Adultery Law in Korean History.

Moderator

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

For event photos, click here.

Note: This event is free and open to the public. This event is to support the launch of Professor Ezra F. Vogel’s book entitled China and Japan: Facing History.

For event photos, click here.