Global Summitry Podcasts

Ryan Hass joined me in the Virtual Studio to examine closely the US-China relationship and the rising tensions between the two. The podcast interview was a perfect opportunity to examine with Ryan early Biden foreign policy from a former US foreign policy official. Ryan brings real knowledge of the current players in the Administration and insights from his focus on China and Taiwan.

Ryan Hass is a senior fellow and the Michael H. Armacost Chair in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, where he holds a joint appointment to the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. He is also the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies. Ryan is also a non-resident affiliated fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School. From 2013 to 2017, Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the National Security Council (NSC) staff. In that role he advised President Obama and senior White House officials on all aspects of U.S. policy toward China, Taiwan, and Mongolia,

Join me and Ryan Hass in the Virtual Studio to examine all things US-China.

I was pleased to invite Jonathan Luckhurst into the virtual studio to examine the progress toward the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rome that occurs and the end of October. Jonathan has long been a student of the Informals including work on the G7 and the BRICS as well as the G20. He has worked with many in the G7 and G20 Research Groups at the University of Toronto. I wanted to get Jonathan into the Studio with several months to spare to examine the progress of the Italian. Presidency in the drive toward the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

Jonathan Luckhurst is a Professor of International Relations at the Graduate School of International Peace Studies, at Soka University in Tokyo Japan. He has written extensively on the Informals - the informal international institutions, such as the G7, the BRICS and of course the G20.

It was great pleasure to bring Michael Beckley into the Virtual Studio to discuss US-China tensions and rivalry and the consequences of these tensions for the evolving global order. Michael has written a dynamic series of articles in Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy concerned with the US, China, and US-China relations. Michael has examined the threat, or not, of Xi Jinping’s China as well assessing what a more aggressive China means for the United States, especially its military posture and strategy in the key strategic flashpoints from the Taiwan Straits, the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific. Some come join us in the Virtual Studio.

Michael Beckley is the Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his research focuses on US-China competition, long-term trends in the US-China power balance, US alliances and grand strategy, and US economic and defense policy in East Asia. Concurrently, he is an Associate Professor at Tufts University. Michael is the author of Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower (Cornell University Press, 2018).

The new book by Cheng Li - Middle Class Shanghai: Reshaping US-China Engagement, published by Brookings was an excellent moment to bring Cheng Li into the Virtual Studio to explore the influence on the rise of the Middle Class but particularly Shanghai’s middle class on China’s foreign policy. There was so much to ask Cheng Li about the impact of the middle class on the Party and the Government. We will have to bring Cheng Li back but for now a real opportunity to explore Chinese foreign policy from a unique position, the transformation of political leaders, generational change, the Chinese middle class, and technological development in China.

Cheng Li is the director of the John L. Thornton China Center and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is also a distinguished fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. And he is a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Li is the author or the editor of numerous books including most recently, “China’s Political Development: Chinese and American Perspectives” (2014), “Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership” (2016), “The Power of Ideas: The Rising Influence of Thinkers and Think Tanks in China” (2017), and the just recently released, “Middle Class Shanghai: Reshaping U.S.-China Engagement”.

In 1985, Cheng Li came to the United States, where he received a master’s in Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a doctorate in political science from Princeton University.

I was pleased to invite into the virtual studio Stewart Patrick to discuss the many efforts to tackle the dramatic decline in biodiversity. Today, there are many summit initiatives underway to deal with the alarming decline in biodiversity. The need to reverse the decline in biodiversity is all too apparent. Humans have already transformed more than 70 percent of the planet’s ice-free land surface, primarily for agriculture and ranching, as well as for mining and human settlements. Around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history. There are many initiatives underway from deserts to wetlands to the High Seas all to deal with the rapid decline in biodiversity. But are they effective? So, Stewart agreed to join us in the Virtual Studio to talk about all these efforts.

Stewart M. Patrick is James H. Binger senior fellow in global governance and director of the International Institutions and Global Governance (IIGG) Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His areas of expertise include multilateral cooperation on global issues; U.S. policy toward international institutions, including the United Nations and a focus biodiversity and climate change. From September 2002 to January 2005, Stewart served on the secretary of state's policy planning staff. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of five books. These days Stewart writes the blog, The Internationalist.

Stewart graduated from Stanford University and received two master’s degrees and his doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

It was a pleasure to have Angel Hsu back in the Virtual Studio. As I have pointed out there will be a burst of Summits and Global Summits this fall 2021. Many of these summits will tackle various aspects of climate change and the impact on the Anthropocene.

To discuss the issues of climate action I could think of no one better than my colleague, Angel. Today, Angel is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and the Environment, Ecology and Energy Program (E3P) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also Founder and Director of the Data-Driven EnviroLab, an interdisciplinary research group that innovates and applies quantitative approaches to pressing environmental issues. The last time we had a chance to sit down was just following the Global Climate Action Summit that took place in San Francisco in September 2018. The EnviroLab had just before the Climate Summit released the first Report: Global Climate Action from cities, regions, and businesses. Since then, two other reports have been prepared.

Angel explores the intersection of science and policy and the use of data-driven approaches to understand environmental sustainability, particularly in the areas of climate change and energy, urbanization and air quality. Angel holds a PhD in Environmental Policy from Yale University, an MPhil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, and a BS in Biology and BA in Political Science from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.

So, join me as I invite Angel Hsu into the Virtual Studio.

It was a pleasure to invite Joshua Busby back into the virtual studio to discuss the Leaders’ Earth Summit just recently concluded and the current state of climate efforts to reduce emissions and keep the average temperature to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius ads possible. President Biden invited 40 world leaders to the Leaders’ Summit on Climate which he hosted virtually on April 22nd and 23rd.

The Summit brought together the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which brought together the 17 countries responsible for approximately 80 percent of global emissions and global GDP. The President also invited the heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership, are especially vulnerable to climate impacts, or are charting innovative pathways to a net-zero economy. A small number of business and civil society leaders also participated in the Summit. This Earth Day Summit is a major event on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) scheduled for this fall in Glasgow. What was committed to by Leaders to this Summit? Where were commitments not made and what are the consequences? What can we expect from the Glasgow COP26 meeting in October following the G20 Leaders Summit in Rome? All of this is part of the discussion that Josh and I had on the continuing global climate change efforts.

Joshua Busby is an Associate Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. In 2018, Josh joined the Center for Climate & Security as a Senior Research Fellow. Josh is the author of numerous studies on climate change, national security, and energy policy that have been published by peer-reviewed academic outlets and various think tanks.

We are just entering the ‘Summit Season’ and I thought I would kick off the Season with a conversation with Paola Subacchi on the question of the Italian G20 Leaders’ Summit. Paola has been involved in G20 summits going back some years. And she has links to those organizing the Italian Rome Summit that will occur possibly in person in the fall.

Paola is a Professor of International Economics and Chair Advisory Board at the Global Policy Institute at Queen Mary, University of London, and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. Previously, she was Director of International Economics Research at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) for over ten years. She is the founder and director of Essential Economics, an independent economic research service. She writes widely about global financial issues and her most recent book from Yale University Press is The Cost of Free Money (2020).

Let’s join Paola in the virtual studio to discuss the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

I invited Nick Bisley into the virtual studio to explore the changing dynamics of the global order in Asia. We have seen the conclusion recently of the RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that includes 15 countries including China. In addition, in March we saw the first meeting of leaders of the Quad. The Quadrilateral Initiative made up of the United States, Japan, India and Australia was formed in 2007 but this was the first leaders meeting, though virtually. It was one of the first multilateral gatherings that included President Biden. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan noted that each of the four leaders present had described the meeting as “historic.” This podcast was an opportunity then to talk with Nick about the significance of this meeting, the rising Australia-China tensions and the consequences for the region of the rising US-China tensions.

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 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.

I am pleased to welcome back to the virtual studio Thomas Wright from Brookings to explore Biden foreign policy in the wake of the first US-China Summit which took place on March 18th and 19th. What does this meeting between top foreign policy officials tell us about the Biden Administration’s foreign policy, especially between the United States and China? Have we entered Cold War 2.0 between China and the United States?

Tom is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. Tom has been very active writing on contemporary politics and in particular the impact of former President Trump and his officials and now President Biden and his officials on American foreign policy. He continues his writing in The Atlantic magazine. Tom’s most recent book, co-authored with Colin Kahl, is entitled: “Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order” and will be released this coming August.