FPRI Events

Jacques deLisle, Director, Asia Program, FPRI
Scott Kastner, University of Maryland, College Park
Wojtek Wolfe, Rutgers-Camden University
Thomas J. Shattuck, Research Associate, FPRI
(Moderator)

Last month, China adopted new civilian aircraft flight paths over the Taiwan Strait, near Taiwan-controlled islands, without consulting Taiwan’s government. Several months earlier, Beijing began dispatching military aircraft to circumnavigate Taiwan. In 2017, China sent its aircraft carrier through the Strait en route to missions in the South China Sea. These actions have raised alarm in Taiwan. They have increased friction over security-related issues in a cross-Strait relationship already strained by other developments initiated by Beijing since Tsai Ing-wen became president in Taiwan, including suspension of Taiwan’s participation in the annual World Health Assembly meeting, shifts in diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing by two of the small cohort of states with formal relations with Taiwan, and the extradition of Taiwanese criminal suspects to the Mainland, rather than Taiwan.

What do the most recent developments reveal about the state of cross-Strait relations? What do they portend for the future? What are the implications for regional security and U.S. policy?

To comment on the volatile situation on the Korean Peninsula, we are pleased to feature one of the world’s foremost authorities on North Korea. Sue Terry served as a Senior Analyst on Korean issues at the CIA from 2001 to 2008. From 2008 to 2009 she served as director for Korea, Japan and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. From 2009 to 2010, she was the deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council. Since leaving government, she has been with the Council on Foreign Relations, Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asia Institute, and with BowerGroupAsia. She holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

We are pleased to present a panel of Vietnam veterans to discuss the significance of the Vietnam War, both personally and for America's place in the world. The panelists reflected on their own experience in the war and how it shaped their post-war understandings of American politics and foreign policy. They also added insights on Burns and Novick's recent PBS documentary about the war and highlighted lessons that Americans should have learned from this consequential period about U.S. history.

Panelists (all veterans of the Vietnam War):
- Michael Novakovic, Businessman
- Al (Cappy) Markle - Attorney
- Ray Tobey, Physician
- David McGuigan, Physician
- Walter A. McDougall, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian
- Mackubin T. Owens, political scientist and military strategist

It can be argued that the rise of Donald Trump has created more uncertainty about America’s role in the world than at any time in recent decades. At the same time, the geopolitical challenges to the US have grown in number and in severity. What role should the United States play in the world? In this talk, as in his book, Hal Brands will reflect on this core question for all Americans and offer “a guide for the perplexed.” His earlier book, Making the Unipolar Moment: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order, was rated one of the top books of the year in 2017 by Foreign Affairs magazine. He has served in the Pentagon as a special assistant to the secretary of defense for strategic planning.

In his new book, Stewart Patrick says that sovereignty is “one of the most frequently invoked, polemical, and misunderstood concepts in politics.” Some see sovereignty as requiring the avoidance of international attachments while others see preservation of sovereignty in steering global forces in a positive direction, particularly in tackling transnational problems like proliferation, terrorism, global pandemics, and climate change. How best to advance US national interests will be the focus of Patrick’s talk. He is director of the International Institutions and Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The illegal trade of everyday counterfeit products -- a $400 billion a year industry -- is a big chunk of what's actually funding terrorist groups around the world, argues FPRI's Vanessa Neumann in her new book Blood Profits. In this talk, Neumann will explain how purchasing illegal goods translates into supporting organized crime and terrorists -- and what can be done about it.

Neumann, a senior fellow of FPRI specializing in the crime-terror nexus, is president of Asymmetrica, a consultancy on strategies for corporate clients and governments to dismantle illicit trade. She serves on the OECD's Advisory Groupo for the Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade. She also holds fellowships at Yale University and Columbia University. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Stephen Kotkin
Birkelund Professor in History and International Relations, Princeton University

Heralded as the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin and the world he lived in, the first volume of Prof. Kotkin's trilogy recast the way we think about Stalin and the Soviet Union. In this talk on the occasion of the publication of his second volume, Kotkin will explore the industrialization of a kind the world had never seen, the militarization of Soviet society, the pact that shocked the world, and the invasion that followed.

Assaf Moghadam, Director of Academic Affairs, International Institute on Counter-Terrorism, IDC Herzliya

Barak Mendelsohn, Senior Fellow, FPRI; Assoc. Professor of Political Science, Haverford College

Drawing on recently declassified matierals, this discussion will explore how terrorists cooperate and how those relationships contribute to the success and resilience of jihadi terrorism - the subject of Moghadam's new book.

Hajnalka Vincze
Senior Fellow, FPRI
European Foreign and Security Analyst

At a crucial moment in European history, France went to the polls and elected the young centrist Emmanuel Macron. How will he deal with opposition from his right and left, with Trump's America, and with the internal and external challenges facing Europe? To answer these questions, we are pleased to feature Hajnalka Vincze, a former analyst in the Hungarian Ministry of Defense in charge of EU and transatlantic relations.

Half a decade after Arabs across the Middle East poured into the streets to demand change, hopes for democracy have disappeared in a maelstrom of violence and renewed state repression. Egypt remains an authoritarian state; Syria and Yemen are in the midst of devastating civil wars; Libya has descended into anarchy; and the self-declared Islamic State rules a large swath of territory. Even Turkey, which also experienced large-scale protests, has abandoned its earlier shift toward openness and democracy and now more closely resembles an autocracy. How did things go so wrong so quickly across a wide range of regimes? In his new book, noted Middle East expert Steven A. Cook looks at the trajectory of events across the region, from the initial uprising in Tunisia to the failed coup in Turkey, to explain why the Middle Eastern uprisings did not succeed.