Global Summitry Podcasts

It was a great pleasure to invite Scott Kennedy back into the virtual studio. Scott has just recently returned from Asia after 5 weeks of travel and discussion and I wanted to get his insights into the how China is viewed in the Asia-Pacific but also how the United States is viewed following President Biden’s first Asian trip. Among other diplomatic steps Biden met with the new President of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol; in Tokyo Biden held meetings with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) involving the United States and 13 other countries, and held a leaders’ gathering of the Quad.

Scott is the Senior Advisor and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business & Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Scott focuses on Chinese economic policy including industrial policy, technology innovation, business lobbying, US-China commercial relations and global governance.

Scott has written extensively on China including most recently: Michael J. Green and Scott Kennedy CSIS Commentary: "U.S. Business Leaders Not Ready for the Next U.S.-China Crisis" https://www.csis.org/analysis/us-business-leaders-not-ready-next-us-china-crisis, Scott Kennedy TCH Blog Post: Bridging Differences with Friends on China https://www.csis.org/blogs/trustee-china-hand/bridging-differences-friends-china, and Gerard DiPippo, Ilaria Mazzocco and Scott Kennedy, CSIS Report: “Red Ink: Estimating Chinese Industrial Policy Spending in Comparative Perspective”. https://www.csis.org/features/how-inequality-undermining-chinas-prosperity.

Before coming to Washington, Scott was a professor at Indiana University (IU), where he established the Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business and was the founding academic director of IU’s China Office.

I was pleased to sit down with Nick Bisley again in the virtual studio to explore the impact of a new Labour Government in Australia on its foreign policy and the views from Canberra of the Indo-Pacific and all the Biden Administration initiatives.

Nick Bisley is the Dean and Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University in Melbourne. His research and teaching expertise is in Asia's international relations, great power politics and Australian foreign and defence policy. Nick is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of International Affairs between 2013 and 2018, the country's oldest scholarly journal in the field of international relations. Nick is the author of many works on international relations.

So join me as we continue to examine the changing dynamics in the Indo-Pacific and the impact of a new Australian government on these changing dynamics.

So, it was my pleasure to sit down with my colleague, Lim Wonhyuk in the Virtual Studio. Lim Wonhyuk has just recently returned to the Republic of Korea (Korea) after two years of research and teaching at SAIS in Washington D.C. as a Visiting Professor.

Given President Biden visiting the Asia-Pacific region for the first time since becoming President, it seemed opportune to sit down with my colleague Lim Wonhyuk to explore the consequences of the trip and focus more generally on the Biden Administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

Lim Wonhyuk is a professor at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea most recently has served as Associate Dean, Office of Development Research and International Cooperation, at KDI School.

Lim Wonhyuk recent publications include: Opinion Polarization in Korea (KDI, 2019, edited) and Understanding the Drivers of Trust in Government Institutions in Korea (OECD, 2018, co-edited), Lim Wonhyuk holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford University

So come join us in the virtual studio to examine Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy including the development of the Quad and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and US relations with Korea, and others including China.

So, it was my pleasure to sit down with my colleague, Colin Bradford in the Virtual Studio to talk about the rising geopolitical tensions in the global order and the evident threats to the continuation of global governance, especially in the G20. There continues to be sharp relations between China and the United States. These relations have only become more difficult with the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. How can the Bali G20 Summit proceed with the current determination by Russia’s President Putin to attend the Summit and the US insistence that it cannot be “business as usual”? It imposes real pressure on the G20 host Indonesia with respect to the attendance and the agenda.

In 2004 as a Brookings expert, Colin Bradford was the first person to push for transforming the G8 to G20 at leaders’ level and became a leading convener of conferences, workshops, and seminars to work for international institutional reforms to bring the emerging market economies more fully into the global system. Colin continues to be the Lead Co-chair of the CWD, the China-West Dialogue and a Co-Chair in the V20, Vision20, an unofficial engagement group of the G20, Colin has participated in all the recent Global Solutions Summits out of Berlin and has been named a GSS Global Fellow. Currently, Colin is a Non-resident Senior Fellow of the Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution.

So come join Colin and I as we examine the threat to the roles of the G7 and the G20.

It was my pleasure to welcome back into Virtual Studio our University of British Columbia (UBC) colleague, Yves Tiberghien. The order of the day was to examine closely China’s position, that is Xi Jinping’s and the Party and Government’s position on Russia. What is the impact of the April 4th partnership and then the Russian aggression against Ukraine? Also, I wanted Yves to describe for us the state relations between the EU and China.

Yves is currently a Professor of Political Science and the Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research at the University of British Columbia. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada and the Canadian PAFTAD Chair. We actually are finding Yves in Paris. We found Yves in Paris where he is currently a Visiting Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs.

Join us as we discuss China’s policies on Russia, the EU and the global order.

I was pleased to invite Steven Slaughter into the virtual studio to discuss the Indo-Pacific and the changing role for Australia. I wanted to get Steven’s take on recent Australian foreign policy moves, Australia’s decision to join with the UK and the United States in Aukus whereby Australia will purchase nuclear submarines and nuclear technology from the UK and the US and displace an agreement with France to purchase conventional submarines. Aukus created quite the crisis among Australia’s allies. I was also quite interested in understanding what Australia saw as the future of the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) which in the fall saw the first leaders’ summit – Australia, India, Japan and the United States. This leaders’ level gathering event marked a milestone for the group.

Steven Slaughter is an Associate Professor in International Relations at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. Steven is a researcher who works within the fields of International Relations, Global Political Economy, and International Political Theory with respect to the political implications of globalisation and global governance. He also follows the efforts of the G20.

Come join Steven and I as we discuss the Indo-Pacific and strategic changes being undertaken in arguably the most important region of the globe.

I was pleased to have John Ikenberry back in the virtual studio with us to focus in part on current American foreign policy under the Biden Administration. The immediate occasion was the recently concluded ‘Summit for Democracy’ called for by the President when he ran against then President Trump. More broadly I wanted to explore with John the rising tensions in the US-China relationship and its impact on the liberal international order that John has written and spoken about over the last two decades.

So join me and John as we explore current American foreign policy and how it is reshaping the global order.

G. John Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University in the Department of Politics and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He is also Co-Director of Princeton’s Center for International Security Studies.

Professor Ikenberry is the author of eight books, mostly recently A World Safe for Democracy: Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order (Yale 2020), and Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American System (Princeton, 2011) and After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars (Princeton, 2001)

I was excited to invite back David Victor into the virtual studio to discuss the consequences of the COP26 Glasgow Summit on climate change and whether technology is the answer to our transition to a low carbon world. David was at Glasgow and he has been a voice for the importance of technologies in the effort to transition to a low carbon emission world.

David G. Victor is a global thought leader on climate change policy and the energy-systems transformation that is required if we hope to create a low-carbon future. David is a professor of innovation and public policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego where he holds the Center for Global Transformation Endowed Chair in Innovation and Public Policy. He has published over 200 articles and books on climate change and the transition to a low carbon world.

Come join David and I as we discuss COP26 and what comes after.

I was pleased to invite Valerie Karplus into the virtual studio to examine the progress towards the upcoming COP26 Glasgow Summit scheduled for November 1 -12th. Many see this Summit as the best last chance to receive national commitments (NDCs) that will achieve the 45% cut based on 2010 levels, that scientists say is needed by 2030 to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Will the key CO2 emitters – the US, China, India, Brazil, etc. be willing to make those kinds of commitments at Glasgow.

Valerie and colleagues recently released a new report: “China’s CO2 Emissions Trading System: History, Status, and Outlook”. I was keen to review with Valerie the efforts by China to create a Emissions Trading System (ETS) to reduce carbon emissions.

Valerie Karplus is currently an Associate Professor in the department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon. Previously, Karplus served as an Assistant Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Karplus studies resource and environmental management in firms operating in diverse national and industry contexts. She works with a collaborative team of researchers to study the micro and macro determinants of clean energy transitions in emerging markets, with a focus on China and India. From 2011 to 2015, she directed the MIT-Tsinghua China Energy and Climate Project, a five-year research effort focused on analyzing the design of energy and climate change policy in China, and its domestic and global impacts.

Susan Thornton was good enough to join me in the Virtual Studio to examine closely the US-China relationship and the rising tensions between the two over Taiwan. The podcast interview was a perfect opportunity to examine more closely with Susan the current Biden foreign policy of ‘competition without catastrophe’ with China and to assess particularly the risks of conflict between the two over Taiwan. Susan brings real knowledge of the current players in the Administration and insights from her many years in the State Department.

Susan was acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs when she retired from the State Department after a 28-year diplomatic career focused primarily on East and Central Asia. Susan worked on China and Korea policy, including stabilizing relations with Taiwan, the U.S.-China Cyber Agreement, the Paris Climate Accord, and she led a successful negotiation in Pyongyang for monitoring of the Agreed Framework on denuclearization

We have been lucky enough in the last several years to have Susan join us, for our China and the West Dialogue (CWD) Project. Susan is currently the Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and Senior Fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center there.

Susan has much to say on the current state of relations between China and the US so join us for this insightful podcast.