Asia Policy Events, Week of August 9, 2026

Asia Policy Point is on summer recess, like the U.S. Congress. We will, however, post some events weekly for our readers and members. If you want to receive these directly to your mailbox, you have to become a "member" of APP. An individual, nonshareable membership is only $105/year and includes our occasional papers of on Japanese politics and access to our office while visiting Washington. SIGN UP HERE.

WEEK OF AUGUST 9, 2026

8/9 - 1945. Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki.
8/11 - Mountain Day, National Holiday, Japan

8/12 - Demise of Prophet Muhammad and Martyrdom of Imam Hassan, National Holiday, Iran

8/14 - International Memorial Day for Comfort Women. On August 14, 1991, when South Korean Kim Hak-sun became the first to give a public testimony about her experience as a comfort woman victim.
8/14 - Taiwan's annual 10-day Han Kuang military exercise ends.

8/15 - 1945. Imperial Japan declares acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and ceases combat activities. Possible visit to the war memorializing Yasukuni Shrine by Prime Minister Takaichi. She visited last year, but was not PM.

8/15 - Independence Day, National Holiday, South/North Korea. Day off 8/17.

8/15 – Annual Far Eastern Prisoners of War (FEPOW) Day in Taiwan hosted by Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.

BEYOND THE STRAIT: THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL ENERGY SECURITY. 8/11, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Arab Gulf States Institute (AGSI). Speakers: Carole Nakhle, CEO, Crystol Energy, Secretary General, Arab Energy Club; Robin Mills, Non-Resident Fellow, AGSI, CEO, Qamar Energy; Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Moderator: Kate Dourian, Non-Resident Fellow, AGSI, Contributing Editor, MEES, Fellow, Energy Institute.

AN UPHILL CLIMB: PUSHING FOR AN INCLUSIVE POLITICAL DIALOGUE IN AFGHANISTAN. 8/12, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Speakers: Ambassador Nasir A. Andisha, Ambassador and Permanent Representative, Afghanistan to the UN in Geneva; Palwasha Hassan, Executive Director, Mina's List; Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne, Former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and Argentina; Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan; Annie Pforzheimer, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Security Program, CNAS.

ISRAEL AND THE U.S. IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE: IS THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP FAILING? 8/13, 10:00-10:45am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow, American Statecraft Program; Yael Lempert, Vice President for Outreach, Middle East Institute; Daniel C. Kurtzer, Lecturer and S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies, Princeton University; Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, College Park. 

AN OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW. 8/13, 1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Law Library, Library of Congress. Speakers: Law Library Staff. 

VISUAL ART REPRESENTATIONS OF WORLD WAR II IN THE PHILIPPINES: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF A SHARED TRAGEDY. 8/15, 4:00-6:00pm (PHT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Ayala Museum, Manila, Philippines. Speaker: Jose T. Ricardo PhD, country's foremost scholar on the Second World War in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific, specializes in military and diplomatic history, focus on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.