Polaris Live Podcasts with Host, Sarwar Kashmeri

Did the Summit between Presidents Trump & Xi result in any tangible results?  What is the prevailing impression in China?  Americans wonder why China, a strong UN supporter, backs what Americans consider an invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign country? Should there be an international agreement on the development of AI?

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ZHA Daojiong
Professor of International Political Economy in the School of International Studies and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China. 

His areas of expertise include non-traditional security studies, international political economy and China’s international economic relations. His research publications cover such topics as energy, cross-boundary water management, development aid and public health, and international development cooperation. He also contributes opinion pieces in newspapers including the South China Morning Post. He studied at the University of Hawaii and the East West Center, where he earned a Doctorate in Political Science. Before joining the faculty of Peking University, he taught in the University of Macau, International University of Japan, Miyazaki International College, and Renmin University of China.

Was  the victory of Flavio Bolsonaro over the present president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the first round of  of Brazil’s presidential election  a big win for President Trump.  Will the result also mean that one of the Global South’s most active diplomatic actors will no longer be able to continue to broaden Brazil's constituency for inclusive multilateralism and an international order less dominated by great-power competition, but instead  narrows its ambitions toward a more selective, bilateral foreign policy centered on Washington.

Will a Bolsonaro return to power in Latin America's largest country, as the Brookings Institution argues,  be decisive in cementing the White House’s mission to realign Latin American nations as reliable U.S. allies, ready to do America's bidding to advance its America First agenda of militarized approaches to crime and drug trafficking, crackdowns on migration, and preferential access to critical minerals and energy.
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Mauricio Santoro is a political scientist and fellow at the Center for Political and Strategic Studies of the Brazilian Navy.

The Global Peace Index 2026 reports that global peacefulness now is at its lowest point since tracking began. Is it even possible to have A world order any more with the emergence of a peer competitive power, China? If the United Nations could not produce a peaceful world order, can anyone? In the U.S. President's words, "To The Victor Go The Spoils," is that going to be the new world order?

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WANG Wen
 Dean & Professor of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY). He is also the Deputy Dean of Silk Road School, Distinguished Professor, Executive Director of China-US People-to-People Exchange Research Center at Renmin University of China. He works as the Secretary-General of the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, a Research Fellow of the Financial Research Center of the Counsellor Office of the China’s State Council, and also serves as a visiting professor at more than 10 universities around the world.

Prof. WANG has led RDCY for 13 years and remains the youngest principal among Chinese major think tanks. He is the author of more than 30 books, among which "Profound Changes Unseen in Centuries", "Great Power’s Long March Road: The views of China's rejuvenation and the future of the world after hundred countries’ visit", etc. are all best-sellers.

Prof. WANG has visited nearly 100 countries and conducted extensive researches and field investigations. He is an advisory consultant for several important Chinese ministries and commissions and has won many honors. In 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on philosophy and social science, and Prof. Wang Wen was one of the ten scholars who spoke.

Jorge Heine
Ambassador Jorge Heine is a lawyer, International Relations scholar and diplomat with a special interest in the international politics of the Global South. Ambassador Heine is Research Professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future.

He has served as ambassador of Chile to China, India , and South Africa , and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. His prestigious positions include  CIGI Professor of Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, a Guggenheim Fellow; a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford University; a United Nations Research Fellow at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

America's is now 6 months into its war on Iran, in which the strongest power n in world appears to be stuck in an endless war with Iran-a minor power militarily and economically. Meanwhile, America has already lost its leadership of  most of the technologies of the future - Solar Panels, Batteries, & Electric Vehicles and appears likely to lose  leadership in the remaining key drivers of the 21st Century--Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Biotech. President Xi Jinping calls technology "the main battlefield  of international competition,"  Is America listening?

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Secretary  Chuck Hagel

Chuck Hagel is an American military veteran who served as a United States Senator from Nebraska and as the 24th United States Secretary of Defense. 

Sec. Hagel was the first enlisted soldier to serve as the Secretary of Defense. A recipient of two Purple Hearts while an infantry squad leader in the Vietnam War, Hagel returned home to start careers in business and politics. He co-founded Vanguard Cellular.  Hagel served as a professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, chairman of the Atlantic Council, and co-chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. He is the author of: "America, Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers."

Francesco Stanislao Parisi

Francesco Stanislao Parisi, CEO,  Francesco Parisi Casa di Spedizioni S.p.A., (https://francescoparisi.com/) is at the helm of a complex galaxy of companies owned by the historical Casa di Commercio Francesco Parisi (registered as Francesco Parisi Sas) which was established in Trieste on January 1st 1807.

The company survived Napoleon and thrived in the territories of the empire through the tumultuous times that followed the fall of Napoleon, the rise of new powers (Italy was unified by the Savoy in 1861) and the fall of the Austro Hungarian Empire in 1919, triggered by the unfavorable end of WWI in 1918. The Parisi companies were however able to take advantage of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and expand their trade in Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Israel, Egypt and more recently New York, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong and many other areas in the Far East. The company also survived WWII and still operates from its Trieste headquarters where its story began over 150 years ago.

China needs a China strategy, not just a reaction driven foreign policy based on China engagement. As a leading middle-power it is high time for Canada to craft a China strategy that relies less on reaction reflex and emotion and more on realism driven by its national interests.. While Canada cannot ignore Washington's concerns and trade potential, it cannot let great-power rivalry completely define its foreign policy.

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JEREMY PALTIEL
Professor of Political Science (emeritus)  at Carleton University, Canada. He is author of several chapters included in edited volumes.  His published articles appear in numerous publications including The China Quarterly and Asian Affairs.

Modi’s ‘Make in India’ vs Trump’s ‘Make in America’ — collision ahead after the Xi-Trump Summit?

U.S.–India economic relationship seems to be shifting from the old “natural partners” narrative into something more transactional and contentious. The forced-labor issue recently highlighted by the Trump Administration is especially interesting, especially as it comes on the heels of the Xi-Trump summit in Beijing: Washington is not just accusing Indian exporters of using forced labor; the argument is also about whether India sufficiently blocks third-country inputs (especially supply-chain links involving China) that Washington considers tainted. The U.S. has floated additional tariffs under a forced-labor rationale.

So, wither the Quad? Wither the much flaunted India as counter to China?

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AJAY SRIVASTAVA

MR.  SRIVASTAVA Founder, Global Trade Research Initiative (an Indian research group specializing in technology, climate change, and trade. He took voluntary retirement from the Government of India in March 2022, having served as an Indian Trade Service Officer. Ajay worked in trade policy formulation and WTO and FTA negotiations, being part of the Indian team negotiating FTAs with ASEAN, Japan, Korea, Australia, the EU, and others. He writes regularly for the Indian media including Business Standard, Hindu Business Line, and Times of India. He is the author of books such as 'Stop Talking, Start Exporting,' 'The GST Nation,' and 'Business Guide to FTA.

Ajay Srivastava is Founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative, an Indian research group specializing in technology, climate change, and trade. 

Despite crippling economic hardships and intense international pressure, North Korea has managed to become a nuclear nation. What drove the country to so resolutely prioritize the development of nuclear weapons? What strategies has it used in pursuit of its goals? And what are the broader strategic, geopolitical implications of its nuclear program?

The author, Yangmo Ku,  will unpack the complexities of North Korea's nuclear ambitions and achievements and shed light on the conundrum that they pose for both East Asian stability and global security.
 
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Yangmo Ku
Dr. Yangmo Ku is Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Peace and War Center (PAWC) at Norwich University. He received his B.A. in German Language and Literature from Sogang University and earned his M.A. in International Affairs and Ph.D. in Political Science from George Washington University. 

Prior to joining Norwich University, he taught in the School of International Service at American University. Dr. Ku’s research focuses on North and South Korean politics, East Asian security, U.S. foreign policy, and the politics of memory and reconciliation in East Asia and Europe.

His new book, Nuclear North Korea: Strategy and Practice from the Korean War to the New Cold War, was published in April 2026. He is also the coauthor of Politics in North and South Korea: Political Development, Economy, and Foreign Relations (2018). He serves as the founding editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Peace and War Studies and co-editor of PAWC’s forum, Voices on Peace and War. His research has appeared in numerous academic journals. He has also frequently delivered intensive lectures on North Korean nuclear issues and Korean Peninsula politics to U.S. federal government officials in Washington, DC, and Hawaii.

Among the thorniest and most delicate issues that Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump will face is the future of Taiwan given that any question of its being an integral part of China is the ultimate red-line of China's foreign policy. Therefore, the discussion of Taiwan during the two Presidents' Summit May 14/15 2026 is a major topic of conjecture between Taiwan-China relations experts, of which Bonnie Glaser is a leading interlocutor. Her views are sought by leaders throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Polaris-Live is fortunate to have Ms. Glaser speak to its global audience immediately after the Presidential Summit to slice through the diplomatic verbiage that will emerge from the Presidential meeting's official press releases and offer her unvarnished view of what if anything was agreed on Taiwan but also on other Asia-Pacific hot buttons such as Japan's rearmament pland, China's claim to most of the South and East China Sea, and whether the U.S. intends to continue being a strong player in Asia-Pacific. 
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Bonnie Glaser
Ms. Glaser is managing director of GMF’s Indo-Pacific program. She is also a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. She is a co-author of US-Taiwan Relations: Will China's Challenge Lead to a Crisis (Brookings Press, April 2023). She was previously senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy for more than three decades.