Asian Art Events in September

PURCHASE BOOK

Jeju Biennale, SOUTH KOREA, 8/25-11/15, 2026.

Busan Biennale, SOUTH KOREA, 8/29-11/1, 2026.

Gwangju Biennial, SOUTH KOREA, 9/5-11/15, 2026.

BOOK TALK: KINKAKUJI AND KITAYAMA: SPACE, PLACE, MONUMENTS AND MEMORY IN JAPAN 1222-1994. 9/10, 7:00-8:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Modern Japan History Association. Speakers: author, Thomas Conlan, Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University; Mimi Yiengpruksawan, Professor of Art History, Yale University; Moderator: Nick Kapur, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University-Camden. PURCHASE BOOK

Autumn Asia Week New York, UNITED STATES. 9/10-18, 2026.

Geraldine Javier’s “State of the Nations” Exhibition at Silverlens Gallery, UNITED STATES. 9/10-10/24, 2026

CURATOR'S TALK: STROLLING TOGETHER IN THE WORLD OF CHINESE ART. 9/15, 6:30-8:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: China Institute of America. Speakers: Annette Juliano, Research Associate, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University; Alfreda Murck, Visiting Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University; David Sensabaugh, Head, Department of Asian Art, Yale University. 

BOOK TALK: IN THE SHADOW OF EMPIRE: ART IN OCCUPIED JAPAN. 9/23, 3:30-5:30pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Department of History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, UNITED STATES. Speaker: Alicia Volk, author, Professor, Japanese Art, Art History and Archaeology, University of Maryland. PURCHASE BOOK

Art Formosa (Taipei), TAIWAN. 9/25-28, 2026.

Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, UNITED STATES. 9/25, 2026-1/25, 2027.

Asia Policy Events, Week of August 23, 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 23, 2026

8/18-24 -King of Jordan Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein pays a state visit to China.
8/19-22 - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits South Korea and Indonesia.

8/21 -  Annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with South Korea ends. The exercise began on Aug 17 concludes one week earlier than scheduled by order of President Trump. Associated live-training events have been reduced, with certain events canceled or converted to simulations.”

8/23 -Kazakhstan is set to hold snap parliamentary elections.

8/23 – 1939. Molotov Ribbentrop Pact (non-aggression Treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union) signed. Germany-Soviet alliance enabled WWII.

8/23 - Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong gives an annual address to mark the independence of the city-state. 

8/23-24 - Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah pays an official visit to China.
8/23-25 - Mexican Foreign Secretary Roberto Velasco Álvarez visits South Korea.

8/25 - Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah pays an official visit to South Korea.

8/23-27 - World Water Week.

8/24-26 - Inaugural Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
8/24-27- 2026 Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo (NECX), Dallas, Texas.
8/27-29 - Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2026, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 
8/29 – 1949. Russia’s first nuclear test, RDS-1.
8/29 – International Day against Nuclear Tests.
8/29 – 1945. First POW camp on the Home Islands of Japan evacuated, Omori on Tokyo Bay and the nearby Shinagawa “hospital,” which rescuers said was “an indescribable hellhole of filth, disease, and death.” (Today, the Heiwajima Motor Boat Racing venue is located at the site of this former POW camp on the artificial island built by the POWs. The camp held Louis Zamperini and Pappy Boyington. Motor boat race gambling was established by unindicted Class A war criminal and black marketeer Ryoichi Sasakawa and remains controlled by his organization, the Nippon Foundation and revenue supports the Sasakawa family of foundations).
8/31 - Seoul's Central District Court sentences Ms. Han Hak-ja, 83 , leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, commonly known as the Unification Church, for on charges of political fund violations and bribery involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee.

BOMBING IS NOT VERIFICATION: THE LIMITS OF STRIKES ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM. 8/24, Noon (EDT), VIRTUAl. Sponsor: Council on Strategic Risks. Speakers: Andrew Weber, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs; Rose Gottemoeller (Former Deputy Secretary General, NATO; Moderator; Mallory Stewart, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance.

AI AGENT CONTAINMENT FAILURES: TECHNICAL REALITIES AND POLICY RESPONSES. 8/24, 2:00-4:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Representative Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), Member, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee; Ian Reynolds, AI Policy Manager, Hugging Face; Helen Toner, Executive Director, The Center for Security and Emerging Technology; Mackenzie Arnold, Director of US Policy, LawAI; Aalok Mehta, Director, Wadhwani AI Center; Matt Pearl, Director, Strategic Technologies Program.

BEYOND THE TALIBAN: FIVE YEARS OF AFGHAN RESILIENCE AND RESISTANCE. 8/25, 10:00am-3:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: National Endowment for Democracy. Speakers: Ryan Crocker, Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan; Nick Schifrin, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent, PBS NewsHour; Annie Pforzheimer, Former U.S. Senior Foreign Service Officer; Minister Counselor (Retired); Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues; Adela Raz, Director, Afghanistan Policy Lab, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Former Afghanistan Ambassador to the U.S.; Lotfullah Najafizada, CEO, Amu TV; Fawzia Koofi, Former Deputy Speaker of the Afghan Parliament and Founder, Women for Afghanistan; Mariam Safi, CEO, Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies; Wazhma Frogh, Human Rights Lawyers and CEO, Women and Peace Studies Organization; Nasir Andisha, Founder, Center for Dialogue and Progress, and Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN in Geneva; Parwiz Kawa, Executive Director, 8AM Media; Damon Wilson, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Endowment for Democracy.

 

PRESS CONFERENCE: HOW WILL OKINAWA’S NEXT ELECTION IMPACT JAPAN? 8/25, 1:00-2:00pm (JST), MIDNIGHT-1:00am (EDT), HYBRID, Sponsor: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ). Speakers: Naomi Machida, Head of the Ginowan Churamizu Kai; Takamatsu Gushiken — Head of Gamafuya.

ENGAGING NAYPYIDAW IN 2026: BANGKOK AND NEW DELHI’S CONSIDERATIONS. 8/25,  2:30-4:00pm (SGT), 2:30-4:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. Speakers: Dr Lalita Hanwong, Assistant Professor, History Department at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand; Dr V.S Seshadri, Senior Fellow for Economic Security at the Delhi Policy Group. 

THE CHALLENGE OF GULF-CHINA TIES: REASSESSING BEIJING’S ROLE AFTER THE IRAN WAR.  8/25, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Arab Gulf State Institute. Speakers: Mohammed Al-Sudairi, Senior Researcher, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies; Aaron Glasserman, Distinguished Fellow, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University; Chuchu Zhang, Associate Professor of International Relations, School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University; Moderator: Robert Mogielnicki, Non-Resident Fellow, AGSI. 

EVALUATING THE FUTURE OF U.S.-SOUTH KOREA-JAPAN TRILATERALISM. 8/25, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Korea Economic Institute. Speakers: Eun A Jo, Assistant Professor of Government, William and Mary; Ayumi Teraoka, Assistant Professor of Politics, Brandeis University; Bruce Klingner, Senior Fellow, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation; Moderator: Arius Derr, Director of Communications, Korea Economic Institute of America. 

THE LIMITS OF IDEOLOGICAL ALIGNMENT. 8/26, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: American German Institute. Speakers: Zsuzsanna Végh, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow, American-German Institute; Program Officer, German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF); Moderator: Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture, & Politics Program, American German Institute.

THRIVING, SURVIVING, ZOMBIFYING OR DYING: WHAT FUTURE FOR USMCA. 8/26, 11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.  Speakers: Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, CEO and founding partner, Consultores Internacionales Ansley; Simon Lester, nonresident fellow, Baker Institute International Economics Program; Rachel Ziemba, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS); Moderator: Karthik Sankaran, senior research fellow in geoeconomics in the Global South program, Quincy Institute.

WHY AMERICA IS RUNNING OUT OF MUNITIONS. 8/26 1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Foreign Policy. Speakers: Tom Karako, Director, CSIS’s Missile Defense Project; Moderator: Ravi Agrawal, Editor in chief, Foreign Policy.

BOOK TALK: HEAVEN DOES NOT BLOCK ALL ROADS: A HISTORY OF TAIWAN THROUGH THE LIFE OF HUANG CHIN-TAO. 8/26, 4:00pm (EDT) IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies. Speakers: Anna Beth Keim, freelance journalist who has been reporting on Taiwan since 2015; Moderator: William Yale, Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies. PURCHASE BOOK  

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF MULTILATERALISM. 8/26, 4:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Stimson. Speaker: Rafael Grossi,Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.  

AI AND AUTONOMY ON THE MODERN BATTLEFIELD. 8/27, 3:45pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Gen. (ret.) James Cartwright, USMC, Board Member, Atlantic Council, 8th Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Owen J. Daniels, Nonresident senior fellow, Forward Defense, Atlantic Council; Moderator: Joe Costa, Director, Forward Defense, Atlantic Council.

Asia Policy Events, Week of August 16, 2026

Asia Policy Point is on summer recess, like the U.S. Congress until August 31. 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 16, 2026

8/3~16 - Beidaihe Annual Summer Chinese leadership meetings, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, PRC. The list of invitees to the annual gathering, as reported by state media, suggests that China’s leaders are placing a heavy emphasis on science, innovation and entrepreneurship, 
8/10-14 - Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby visits Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. First official trip to Southeast Asia as Under Secretary of War for Policy. MANILA SPEECH, PRESS CONFERENCE.
8/12 - South Korea's Supreme Court confirms a decision requiring Japan's Nippon Steel to compensate the relatives of a Korean national who endured forced labor under Japan's occupation at its Kamaishi Steelworks. 
8/13 - Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his first visit to one of four Russian-held western Pacific islands (Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu) seized after WWII that Japan calls its Northern Territories.
8/14 – Memorial Day for Japanese Forces’ Comfort Women Victims, South Korea.
8/14 – 1991. South Korean comfort woman victim Kim Hak-sun became the first to give public testimony about her experience.

8/15 - 1945. Imperial Japan accepts the Potsdam Declaration and ceases combat operations. Shūsen-kinenbi (Memorial Day for the End of the War in Japan). National Memorial Service for the War Dead at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo with the Emperor and prime minister. 
     As expected, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi did not make her usual visit Yasukuni Shrine and sent an offering instead. However, Upon arriving at Nippon Budokan hall to attend her first war memorial ceremony since taking office last year, Takaichi turned toward the Yasukuni Shrine across the road and bowed twice, clapped twice and bowed once in an apparent act of Shinto worship from a distance. She did visit the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for War Dead down the street from the Yasukuni Shrine. Her Memorial statement also made no mention of "remorse." [APP wrote about Prime Minister Ishiba's reinsertion of "remorse" in the annual memorial statement after its removal by Prime Minister Abe.] Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, Minoru Kiuchi, economic and fiscal policy minister, Kimi Onoda, economic security minister, and Hitoshi Kikawada, in charge of issues related to Okinawa and the Northern Territories did visit the Shrine. Senior LDP officials -- Secretary General Suzuki, Haruko Arimura, head of its General Council, and Yasutoshi Nishimura, head of its Election Strategy Committee -- went to the Shrine as well. On the same day, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung emphasized in his remarks for Liberation Day "that Korea-Japan cooperation is more important than ever, The light of the new Korea-Japan relationship that we will create is To those who are still enduring pain in the shadows of history It must be able to be a source of warmth." 

8/15 -  USS George Washington departs the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East leaving the Western Pacific without an American aircraft carrier. Next day Trump orders the scaling back of the upcoming U.S.-South Korea exercises.
15 – Annual Far Eastern Prisoners of War (FEPOW) Day in Taiwan hosted by Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society. 
8/15-16 - Panda Fest DC 2026, Washington, DC, outdoor Asian food festival with experiential activities, tastings, and market fairs.
8/17 - 1926. Centenary of the birth of late Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Xi to speak at commemoration.
8/17 – Independence Day, National Holiday, Indonesia.
8/17-27 - 26th Annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with the U.S. and South Korea held in South Korea. On the 16th, Trumps tells Hegseth to scale them back!!
8/19 – 1945. Several dozen British, Dutch, and American senior officers including Lieutenant Generals Jonathan Wainwright and A.E. Percival located by the OSS at the Hsian POW camp, 150 miles north of Mukden (today's Shenyang, China).
8/20-21 - Religious Freedom in Asia: Representation, Restrictions and Rights hosted by the Asia Centre Bangkok.
8/21 – 1945. Japanese authorities decide to set up the Recreation and Amusement Association (RAA) for the benefit of Allied occupation troops modeled on the military government’s long-established Comfort Women system.

8/22-23 - Freedom 250 Grand Prix street circuit: NTT INDYCAR SERIES. First-ever automotive race around the National Mall and the historic streets of Washington, DC. Veterans of the NTT trade wars will be amused that Japan's NTT is now encircling the National Mall. 
8/23 - Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong gives an annual address to mark the independence of the city-state. 
8/23-27 - World Water Week.

KEIRIN: JAPAN'S WARRIORS ON BICYCLES. 8/17, 6:45pm (BST), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Japan Society-UK. Speakers: Joe Truman, British Track Cyclist; author, Justin McCurry, Japan and Korea correspondent, The Guardian, War on Wheels: Inside Keirin and Japan’s Cycling Subculture; Moderator: Jim McCafferty, Director, Reynolds Technology. PURCHASE BOOK. NB: Keirin is a major off-budget source of funding (managed by METI) for Japan’s electronics industry.

BEYOND PYONGYANG: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, MODERNIZATION, AND INEQUALITY IN NORTH KOREA. 8/17, 8:00-9:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Stimson, 38 North. Speakers: Martyn Williams, Senior Fellow, 38 North Program; Iliana Ragnone, Research Analyst & Managing Editor, 38 North Program; Moderator: Jenny Town, Director, 38 North Program.

THE HORMUZ IMPLICATIONS FOR ENERGY POLICYMAKING: JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA. 8/18, 8:00-9:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: CSIS, Energy Security and Climate Change Program. Speakers: TERAZAWA, Tatsuya, Chairman and CEO, IEEJ, Japan; Jae-Seung Lee, Professor, Jean Monnet Chair in College & Graduate School of International Studies (CIS & GSIS), Korea University; Jane Nakano, Senior Fellow, Energy Security and Climate Change Program.

SOUTHEAST ASIA'S GENERATIONAL SHIFT: FOREIGN POLICY FUTURES. 8/18, 9:00-10:35am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). Speakers include: Dante Schulz, Project Manager for Political and Security Affairs, NBR; Rohan Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science; Rajni Gamage, Research Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore; Md. Tanvir Habib, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka; Moderator: Christopher Clary, Associate Professor of Political Science, University at Albany.

THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ CLOSURE: WHAT HAPPENS TO TRADE AND SHIPPING? 8/19, 9:00-10:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Speakers: Simon J. Evenett, Professor of Geopolitics and Strategy, IMD Business School, Founder of St Gallen Endowment for Prosperity through Trade, University of St Gallen Switzerland; Dorota Lost-Siemińska, Director Legal Affairs and External Relations, International Maritime Organization (IMO); Moderator: Cecilia Malmström , Nonresident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International
Economics (PIIE).

GOLDEN DOME: EARLY ASSESSMENT AND OPEN QUESTIONS. 8/19, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: David Mosher, Director of National Security Analysis - Congressional Budget Office; Steve Fetter, Professor, School of Public Policy - University of Maryland; Michael E. O’Hanlon, Director of Research - Foreign Policy, Director - Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Co-Director - Africa Security Initiative, Moderator: Melanie W. Sisson, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology.

PRESS CONFERENCE: JAPAN'S SECURITY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD. 8/19, 11:00-Noon (JST), 8/18, 10:00-11:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ). Speakers: Ken Jimbo, Research Institute for Advanced Innovation and GeoStrategy (RAIS); Tomoyuki Furutani, (RAIS).

DIGITAL TAIWAN LECTURE SERIES – TAIWAN’S ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND THE 2026 LOCAL ELECTIONS. 8/19, 4:00-5:00pm (TST), 4:00-5:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Institute for Security & Development Policy. Speakers: Dr. Ching-Hsin Yu, Research Fellow, Election Study Center, National Chengchi University; Moderator: Yi-Chieh Chen, Research Fellow, ISDP’s Stockholm Taiwan Center.

CAN THE UNITED STATES RETAIN ITS SCIENTIFIC TALENT? 8/20, 3:00-4:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Speakers: Adriana Bankston, Consultant & Advisor; Scientific Research Policy; Advocacy & Government Relations; Donna Ginthe, Roy A. Roberts & Regents Distinguished Professor of Economics Director, Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas; Shalin Jyotishi, Founder and Director, Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative; Moderator: Trelysa Long, Policy Analyst, ITIF.

DOES AUKUS STRENGTHEN AUSTRALIA’S SECURITY? 8/20 6:00-7:15pm (AEST), 4:00-5:15am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Lowy Institute. Speakers: Sam Roggeveen, Program Director Lowy Institute’s International Security Program; Jennifer Parker, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, Adjunct Fellow in Naval Studies at the University of Western Australia; Mihai Sora, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute. Fee 

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 accepts the Potsdam Declaration and ceases combat operations. Shūsen-kinenbi (Memorial Day for the End of the War in Japan). National Memorial Service for the War Dead at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo with the Emperor and prime minister. Rightwing parliamentarians visit the Yasukuni Shrine. 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. 

SIX MONTHS AFTER EPIC FURY: THE STATE OF THE CONFLICT IN THE GULF. 8/13, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Michael Doran, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Ludovic Hood, Senior Fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Zineb Riboua, Research Fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. 

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. 

Asia Policy Events, Monday April 27, 2026

AFGHANISTAN AND ITS NEIGHBORS: CONCEPTUALIZING A NEW REGIONAL MECHANISM FOR PRINCIPLED SECURITY. 4/27, 10:00am-2:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University. Speakers: TBD.  Lunch will be served.

POWER, RELIGION, AND IDEOLOGY IN NORTH KOREA. 4/27, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Jonathan Cheng, China Bureau Chief, Wall Street Journal; Jung H. Pak, Distinguished Associate Fellow, Centre for Security, Diplomacy, and Strategy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel; Moderator: Andrew Yeo, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for Asia Policy Studies, SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies. PURCHASE BOOK

TRUMP, TAKAICHI AND THE GEOPOLITICS OF DETERRENCE IN THE INDO-PACIFIC. 4/27, Noon (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Weatherhead Program on US-Japan Relations, Harvard University. Speakers: Kenneth Weinstein, Japan Chair, Hudson Institute; Moderator: Christina Davis, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Department of Government, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University.

BOOK TALK: HOW ECONOMIC REFORM REVIVED TOTALITARIAN RULE IN CHINA. 4/27, 5:00-6:30pm (BST), Noon-1:30pm (EDT) VIRTUAL. Sponsor: School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Speaker: author Minxin Pei, Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna College, Editor of China Leadership Monitor. PURCHASE BOOK

THE FUTURE OF THE GULF: COMMERCE AND SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST AFTER OPERATION EPIC FURY. 4/27, 4:00-5:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speakers: Jared Cohen, President, Global Affairs, Goldman Sachs and Co-Head, Goldman Sachs Global Institute; Moderator: Mike Gallagher, Distinguished Fellow.

Trump's Asia Trade War

 

TRUMP’S TRADE WAR AGENDA
FOR THE ASIA-PACIFIC

 
Wednesday, March 26, 2025

10:30 - 11:30am

IN PERSON ONLY

You are invited to a  discussion 
with

Michael L. Beeman
 

Dr. Beeman is the author of Walking Out: America’s New Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific  and Beyond (Stanford U Press, 2024) He served as a senior trade official at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for over 16 years, most recently as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea and APEC from 2017-23. He holds a DPhil in politics (University of Oxford) and an MA in international relations (Johns Hopkins University).

In addition of Walking Out, he is the author of Public Policy and Economic Competition in Japan: Change and Continuity in Antimonopoly Policy, 1973-1995 (2002: Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)

Event Location
Suite 1215
OFC Building
1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
 

REGISTER HERE
or, by emailing us at asiapolicyhq@jiaponline.org
Reservations Necessary
space limited

Monday Asia Events July 27 2020

IS THE US READY FOR AN INDO-US PARTNERSHIP? 7:00–9:00pm (IST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Observer Research Foundation (ORF). Speakers: Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia, Council on Foreign Relations; Jeff Smith, Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation Asian Studies Center; Sanjaya Baru, Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Defense Studies & Analysis & United Service Institution. Moderator: Rajeswari Rajagopalan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF.

EXPANSION OF MARITIME ACTIVITY IN THE BERING STRAIT REGION: MITIGATING EXISTING AND FUTURE RISKS. 11:00am-12:30pm (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Polar Institute, Wilson Center. Speakers: Mark Everett, U.S. Coast Guard District 17 Incident, Management & Preparedness Advisor, Co-Chair of the Joint Planning Group for Russia-U.S. Joint Marine Pollution Contingency Plan (JCP); Dr. Natalia Kutaeva, Counsellor to the Director of Marine Rescue Service (MRS), Co-Chair of the Joint Planning Group for Russia-U.S. Joint Marine Pollution Contingency Plan (JCP); Ed Page, Executive Director, Marine Exchange Alaska; Yaari Walker, Indigenous Consultant for Alaska Pacific University; Margaret Williams, Director, WWF US Arctic Program. Moderator: Ambassador David Balton, Senior Fellow, Polar Institute, Former Ambassador for Oceans and Fisheries, U.S. Department of State.

THE FUTURE OF THE US POSTURE IN THE GULF. 10:00–11:00am (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: IISS. Speakers: Daniel Benaim, Fellow, Century Foundation; Kirsten Fontenrose, Director for Regional Security, Middle East, Atlantic Council; Becca Wasser, Fellow, Defense Program, Center for a New American Security. Moderator: Emile Hokayem, Senior Fellow for Middle East Security, IISS.

OFFSHORE WIND: UNLOCKING POTENTIAL FOR A GREEN STIMULUS. 10:00–11:00am (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Thomas Brostrøm, CEO, Ørsted North America, Offshore Wind; Karen Douglas, Commissioner, California Energy Commission; David Hayes, Executive Director, State Energy and Environmental Impact Center; Hannes Pfeifenberger, Principal, Brattle Group. Moderator: David Goldwyn, Chairman, Energy Advisory Group.

ANOTHER AUGUST SURPRISE: WHAT IS PUTIN UP TO IN UKRAINE? Noon–1:00pm (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Pavel Felgenhauer, Columnist, Novaya Gazeta; David Kramer, Senior Fellow, Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy; Hanna Shelest, Director of the Security Studies Program, Foreign Policy Council “Ukraine Prism”. Moderator: John Herbst, Director, Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

CHINA 101 BRIEFING SERIES- FEEDING THE DRAGON: THE ROLE OF CULTURAL DIPLOMACY IN US-CHINA RELATIONS. 1:00-2:00pm (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: US-Asia Institute (USAI). Speakers: Chris Fenton, CEO, Media Capital Technologies, Trustee, USAI; Zak Dychtwald, Founder and CEO, Young China Group.

UNDOING 70 YEARS OF WAR: A ROUNDTABLE ON ADVANCING PEACE IN KOREA. 1:00-2:30pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Quincy Institute. Speakers: Katharine Moon, Professor of Political Science and the Wasserman Chair of Asian Studies at Wellesley College; Lt. Col. Daniel Davis (Senior Fellow and Military Expert at Defense Priorities, Henri Feron, Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy; Jessica Lee, Senior Research Fellow on East Asia at Quincy Institute; Adam Mount, Senior Fellow and Director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists; and Hazel Smith, Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London.

A CONVERSATION WITH MARY L. TRUMP. 5:30pm (EDT), LIVE STREAM. Sponsor: The Washington Post. Speaker: Mary L. Trump, Author, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, President Donald J. Trump's niece; Moderator: Robert Costa, Columnist, The Washington Post. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3f3FFUS

Postwar Indonesia

click to order

THE WHOLE PLACE WENT TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL: THE END OF WORLD WAR II IN MALAYA AND THE NETHERLANDS INDIES 1945-46. 3/24, Noon-1:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: George Washington University's Memory & Reconciliation in Asia Pacific program and the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. Speaker: Ronald Spector, Professor of History and International Affairs, GW.

In August 1945, the global conflagration known as World War II finally came to an end in the Asia Pacific. This unprecedented total war as well as its multiple endings have profoundly reshaped the fate of peoples in this vast region. This lecture series introduces the latest research by GW faculty members, graduate students, and other scholars in order to shed new light on this crucial period of recent history.

Video of Professor Spector discussing his 2007 book, In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia

Monday in Washington, November 3, 2014

OECD DATA HARVEST – AGRICULTURE POLICIES & GLOBAL MARKET OUTLOOK. 11/3, 9:30-Noon. Sponsors: OECD, Washington Center; Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA. Speakers: Ken Ash, Director, OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate; Anne Effland, USDA Economic Research Service; Jonathan Brooks, Head of Agro-food Trade and Markets, OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate; Nicholas Nelson, Director, FAO Liaison Office for North America; and Seth Meyer, Acting Chair, USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board.

KURDISTAN: FROM PAWN TO PLAYER. 11/3, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: SAIS Johns Hopkins. Speaker: Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the Department of Foreign Relations for the Kurdistan Regional Government.

PEACEBUILDING IN SOUTHERN THAILAND SINCE THE MAY COUP. 11/3, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Asia Foundation. Speaker: Hadee Hamidong, William P. Fuller Fellow in Conflict Resolution, The Asia Foundation; and Kim McQuay, Country Representative in Thailand, The Asia Foundation.

PARADOX OF U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: ITS RISE AND DEMISE. 11/3, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: GWU Elliott School. Speaker: Bruce Gregory, adjunct professor of public diplomacy in the School of Media and Public Affairs at GWU. Read Special Report here.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM. 11/3, 2:00-3:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS; Vietnam Education Foundation. Speakers: Ms. Sandy Dang, Acting Executive Director, Vietnam Education Foundation; and Dr. Margaret Petrochenkov. Program Officer, Vietnam Education Foundation.

FROM HIZBULLAH TO THE ISLAMIC STATE. 11/3, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). Speakers: Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut; Joseph Bahout, visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at CEIP; Frederic Wehrey, senior associate in the Middle East Program at CEIP.

GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS, MEGA-REGIONALS, AND PROSPECTS FOR MULTILATERAL TRADE COOPERATION. 11/3, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (IIE). Speakers: Anabel Gonzalez, senior director of the trade and competitiveness global practice at the World Bank; Patrick Low, vice president of research at the Fung Global Institute; Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at IIE; and Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at IIE. (webcast).

COMBATING THE SPREAD OF EBOLA: THE US AID EFFORT IN LIBERIA. 11/3, 6:00pm, Reception. Sponsors: Women’s Foreign Policy Group (WFPG); New York University Washington, DC. Speaker: Helene Cooper, Pentagon correspondent, The New York Times; Moderator: Elisabeth Bumiller, Deputy Washington Bureau Chief, The New York Times.

ISLAM IN EURASIA. 11/3-4. Sponsors: GWU Elliott School Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies and Central Asia Program, Henry Luce Foundation. Speakers: Pauline Jones Luong, professor of political science, University of Michigan.

Womenomics - A Conference June 17th

onna bugeisha

At this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe personally committed to closing his country's gender gap and making Japan a place where "women shine." Substantial challenges lie ahead. Japan’s current performance on gender parity is sobering: in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2013, (October 25, 2013), Japan ranked 105 out of 136 countries.

Skeptics of Abe's new feminism also cite his long advocacy of traditional gender roles and opposition to Japan's constitutional rights for women. He has not supported the right of women to retain their own names or female succession to emperor. Even his position on Comfort Women is framed in traditionalist notions of women. Nevertheless, Abe has made "womenomics," a concept first penned by Goldman Sachs' Kathy Matsui in 2000, a key component of his Abenomics.

On June 3rd, the WEF Forum released Closing the Gender Gap in Japan. The report identifies three areas, in particular, where Japan is falling behind.

First, the participation gap: Japan has one of the lowest female labour participation rates among OECD countries. Only 63% of women work, compared to 85% of men; female employees are more than three times as likely as male employees to work part-time. Goldman Sachs estimates that closing the participation gap could boost Japan’s GDP by 13%. It is especially necessary given the country’s demographic outlook – the labour force is shrinking, the old age dependency ratio is growing and the fertility rate is one of the world’s lowest.

The second gap that needs to be addressed is the remuneration gap: on average, women earn only slightly over half of what men earn. This can only partially be explained by women working disproportionately in lower-paying professions; Japan ranks 87th globally in wage gaps for similar work, according to a survey of executives.

Finally, there is the advancement gap: while women comprise nearly half of all professional and technical workers, they make up only 9% of legislators, senior officials and managers. Encouragingly, investments already made in closing the education gap – women’s rate of enrolment in tertiary education now nearly matches that of men – mean that Japan is ideally poised for efforts to close the advancement gap.

The US-Asia Institute will hold a timely conference in Washington on June 17th that is open to the public to discuss all these issues.

THEGLOBAL IMPACT OF THE POWER OF WOMENOMICS

June 17, 2014 

10:30am- 2:00pm 

Washington, DC 

Sponsor
US-Asia Institute 

Location

Capitol Visitors Center 203-02 

Special Guests 

His Excellency Kenichiro SASAE, Ambassador from Japan

Ambassador Constance A. Morella, President, U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress

Keynote Speaker

Ms. Rui MATSUKAWA 

Director, Gender Mainstreaming Division, Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Panel 1: Women in the Workplace: What Lessons and Challenges Do We Share
Featuring: Dr. Stephan DANNINGER, Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund
Ms. Tracey DOI, Group Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
Mr. Terry TERASAWA, Chief Representative, The Bank of Tokyo
MODERATOR: Ambassador Constance MORELLA, President, U.S. Association of Former members of Congress

Panel 2: US-Japan Development Cooperation: Assistance for the Empowerment of women in Developing Countries
Framing the Discussion/Moderator: Ms. Manisa SINGH, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Respondents: Mr. Hajime TAKEUSHI, Chief Representative, JICA, USA Offices,
Ms. Sheila SMITH, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies, Council on Foreign Relations,
Mme Gouri MIRPURI, Founder, Learning Farm/HUB

Monday cancelled,Tuesday On

The Federal Government and all of Washington's think tanks were closed on Monday due to a snow storm. All Monday events are being rescheduled. Here are the interesting one's for Tuesday.

THE MILITARY BALANCE 2014. 3/18, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: International institute for Strategic Studies (IISS-US). Speakers: James Hackett, Editor, The Military Balance; Douglas Barrie, Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace, IISS; Samuel Charap, Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia, IISS. 

JAPAN'S "SWING STATE" DIPLOMACY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. 3/18, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Carnegie Endowment. Speakers: Tsutomu Kikuchi, Professor of International Economy of the Asia-Pacific, Aoyama-Gakuin University; Tamotsu Fukuda, Professor, Toyo Eiwa University. Location: Carnegie Endowment, 1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW. Contact: .

FILLING THE SKILLS GAP IN MANUFACTURING: THE UNTAPPED RESOURCE. 3/18, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: Aspen Institute. Speakers: Karen A. Fletcher, Vice President, DuPont Engineering and Chief Engineer; Antoinette (Tonie) Leatherberry, Principal, Deloitte Consulting; Former Senator Blanche Lincoln, Founder and Principal, Lincoln Policy Group; Elizabeth Woo, Vice Presdient, Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation; Session Moderator: Theresa A. Maldonado, Director EEC Division, National Science Foundation.
Large Conference Room.

US EVOLVING STRATEGY IN ASIA AND THE ROLE OF THE US-JAPAN ALLIANCE. 3/18, 2:30-4:30pm. Sponsor: Center for Asian Studies, American University. Speaker: Randall Schriver, President and Chief Executive Officer, Project 2049 Institute. 

SYMPOSIUM TO SAVE THE KONO STATEMENT

SYMPOSIUM TO SAVE THE KONO STATEMENT

DON’T LET ABE DISMANTLE AN APOLOGY

Friday, March 7, 2014

4:00-4:00 pm

Location

House of Representatives Diet Members Building #1 

First Floor International Conference Room 

(Passes will be distributed that day starting at 1:30 pm in the lobby)

Speakers

Japanese-language only

Professor Hayashi can respond in English

Professor Yoshiaki YOSHIMI, Chuo University, Department of History will discuss NHK Chairman Katsuto MOMII’s comments on the Comfort Women

Professor Hirofumi HAYASHI, Kanto Gakuin University, Department of History will discuss new documentation indicating coercion in recruiting and retaining Comfort Women

Ms. Rumiko NISHINO, Co-Representative, Violence Against Women in War Research Action Center, Tokyo will discuss the government’s inquiry into the “verification” of the 

testimony of the 16 Comfort Women

Background

There has been an acceleration of efforts to delegitimize the Kono Statement*. Last fall, the Sankei Shimbun leaked the confidential testimonies of 16 Korean former “Comfort Women” that had been used to support the 1993 Kono Statement. On January 1, 2014, the Sankei followed by reporting that Kono Statement was prepared in concert with the Korean government. Later that month, the new chairman of NHK Katsuto MOMII brushed off the Comfort Women as a common phenomenon among world militaries. 

The Japan Restoration Party (JRP) quickly requested former deputy chief cabinet secretary Nobuo ISHIHARA to testify to the Lower House Budget Affairs Committee regarding the background to the Kono Statement. In his mid-February testimony Ishihara said “An investigation to prove the factual background of the testimony of the former comfort women was never carried out.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide SUGA quickly responded that the Government would create a committee to examine “the verification” of their testimony.

It is clear that the ruling and opposition parties are collaborating with the nation’s public broadcasting system to gut and shelve this one Japanese apology to the women swept up in Imperial Japan’s military Comfort Women system. They want to deny the facts that Imperial Japan’s armed forces and government were involved. They want to discredit the witnesses and ignore the documentation. They are trying to destroy the legitimacy of the Kono Statement and the dignity of the victims. 

In an era that recognizes the scourge of sexual violence against women in conflict, the Government of Japan should be strengthening not rescinding its apology to Imperial Japan’s military sex slaves. Japan should be taking the lead in combating rape, not rationalizing its propagation. Japan should be confronting not only its past, but also its contemporary responsibilities.

Sponsors

Japanese Military “Comfort Women” Issue Website Production Committee

Center for Research and Documentation on Japan’s War Responsibility

Violence Against Women in War Research Action Center (VAWWRAC)

VAWWRAC is the successor to "Violence against 

Women in War Network Japan" (VAWW-NET Japan)

Contact

*Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the

issue of "comfort women," August 4, 1993, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

War photography

Two venues in Washington this month hold exhibits of war photography that include subjects from conflicts in Asia. Both have opening receptions this holiday weekend. They are the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Korean Cultural Center Washington DC.


WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath
The Corcoran Gallery of Art
June 29–September 29, 2013

This landmark exhibition revolutionizes our understanding of this momentous subject, immersing viewers in the experience of soldiers and civilians during wartime. Epic in scope and ambition, and featuring many of the most indelible photographs ever made, WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY takes us from the home front to the battlefield and back again. For a REVIEW.

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 10:00 a.m.-5 p.m. A Special Day of Programming

Tragedy Assistance Programs for Survivors Workshop, 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Perfect for family participation, an interactive booth will allow adults and children of all ages to show support for families who have lost a loved one in war by writing a letter or signing a card as a way of extending sympathy to remaining survivors. Additionally, two children's book readings will take place throughout the day in the Reflection Room, affording kids another way to connect with and manage the themes of the exhibition.

Veterans History Project Workshop; 1:30 p.m.

Increase your understanding of the oral history interviewing process through this interactive workshop presented by the Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, a national initiative mandated by Congress to collect, preserve and make accessible the first-person accounts of America's wartime veterans. To date, over 87,000 veterans have submitted their personal recollections making this the largest such collection in American history. The workshop will be led by retired US Army colonel, Bob Patrick, Director of the Veterans History Project. Instructional materials will be provided for each participant. REGISTER HERE.


Film Screening; Bearing Witness, 3:30 p.m.

In this powerful documentary film, Barbara Kopple, Bob Eisenhardt and Marijana Wotton chronicle the personal and professional lives of five female journalists as they cover war across the globe. Bearing Witness is presented in collaboration with Women Photojournalists of Washington. REGISTER HERE

LOOKING AT MEMORIES THROUGH EYES: Photography by Seung-Geun Park
Korean Cultural Center
July 5 - 31, 2013

Opening Reception 
Friday, July 5 @ 6:30 pm

Featuring evocative portraits of veterans of the Korean War and scenes of the UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea, located in Busan.

Documentary photographer and active ZUMA Press foreign correspondent, Seung Geun Park received his Masters in photography and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Visual Anthropology. Since 2005, he has been in charge of photography for various major Korean media, including KBS, Sisa Journal, Sunday Fishing, and Cine21. He was the official photographer for the Busan International Film Festival and NIKE. Currently, he has published four books and in 2004 received the grand prize in the documentary category of a photo exhibition contest sponsored by Joong-Ang Daily.

"To defend freedom and peace in Korea, many young soldiers from 21 countries gathered under the banner of the United Nations. Now, after 60 years, they are deeply wrinkled, white-haired veterans. But, their eyes, regardless of the times gone by, still shows plenty of animation."
- Seung-Geun Park

This exhibition is held in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Korean Armistice Agreement, signed on July 27, 1953, which marked the birth of the Korea-US Alliance.

Rendezvous with Destiny

Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin Roosevelt Took the United States into World War II

On July 3, Foreign Policy at The Brookings Institution will host Nonresident Senior Fellow Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and author of the new book Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World (Penguin Press, 2013).

Fullilove will present his account of FDR’s special envoys sent on missions to Europe in the lead-up to Pearl Harbor: Sumner Welles, a well-bred diplomat who was eventually forced out of the State Department for his sexual misadventures; “Wild Bill” Donovan, the Republican lawyer, adventurer and future spymaster; Harry Hopkins, the sickly social worker and political fixer; Wendell Willkie, a former Republican presidential candidate; and Averell Harriman, the railroad baron turned policy-maker. Taken together, the missions describe the progressive hardening of Roosevelt’s policy toward the dictators and plot the arc of America’s transformation from a reluctant middle power into the global leader.

Kurt Campbell, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and now chairman and CEO of The Asia Group, will join the discussion, which will be moderated by Brookings Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Martin Indyk.

Japan's war in Asia, beginning in 1937 (if not 1931), was a subtext to Roosevelt's worries about the war in Europe. American Sundays were colored by urgent pleas by church missionaries to help the beleaguered Chinese. Newspapers reported horrific stories of massacre and mayhem. As Japan moved into Southeast Asia, Washington began to view the Japanese as they did the Germans. Yet, preparations for war in Asia followed a different course than those with Europe. 

With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adamant that the 1941 Hull Note was an ultimatum that tricked, if not forced Japan into war with the United States, understanding the pre-WWII environment is ever more important. Abe looks to this past and interprets it as Japan's glory. He wants to recapture and repackage it as enviable honor.

The Chinese have a different view. For them, the second world war began not in 1939 but in 1937 and they fought it more or less alone. Their sacrifices of people, treasure, and morality though rarely known outside China, permanently changed Chinese social and political perceptions. Today's China is not the creation of colonial Britain, the treaty ports, or the opium wars of the 19th century, but was formed on the bloody battlefields against Imperial Japan.

This is all outlined in a new book by Oxford Professor Rana Mitter, China's war with Japan, 1937-1945: The struggle for survival (To be published in America in September as Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-45 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). [Book Review] [Economist Review] He writes: 

If we wish to understand the role of China in today's global society, we would do well to remind ourselves of the tragic, titanic struggle which that country waged in the 1930s and 1940s not just for its own national dignity and survival, but for the victory of all the Allies, west and east, against some of the darkest forces that history has ever produced.

Monday in Washington

ARAB REVOLUTIONS AND THE IMF: SUPPORTING DEMOCRATIZATION OR BUSINESS AS USUAL? 4/22, 9:00-10:30am. Sponsor: New America Foundation (NAF). Speakers: Mahinour El-Badrawi; Senior Researcher, Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights; Faysal Itani; Visiting Fellow, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, Atlantic Council; Kinda Mohamadieh, Senior Policy Advisor, Arab NGO Network for Development; Leila Hilal, Director, Middle East Task Force, New America Foundation.

2013 ENVIRONMENT AND SECURITY DISCUSSION SERIES. 4/22, 9:30-11:30am. Sponsor: Stimson Center. Speakers: Sherri Goodman, Senior Vice President, CNA; former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security (1993-2001); Richard Cronin, Director, Southeast Asia Program, Stimson; Ellen Laipson, President and CEO, Stimson.

ORGANIZING AND MANAGING INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS TO FIGHT TERRORISM. 4/22, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speaker: Philip Mudd, President of Mudd Management.

US-RUSSIA RELATIONS: THE FUTURE OF THE RESET. 4/22, 11:00-1:00pm. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speakers: Andrei Piontkovsky, Executive Director of the Strategic Studies Center; David Satter, a former Moscow correspondent; Andrei Illarionov, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.

 INVISIBLE ARMIES. 4/22, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Elliott School, George Washington University. Speakers: Max Boot, Author; Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at Council on Foreign Relations.

THE BATTLE OF BRETTON WOODS: JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, HARRY DEXTER WHITE, AND THE MAKING OF A NEW WORLD ORDER. 4/22, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: World Bank. Speaker: Benn Steil, author, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations.


IRAN SANCTIONS: RESTRICTIONS, LICENSING, DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS. 4/22, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: Women in International Trade (WIIT). Speakers: Aydin Akgun, Licensing, Office of Foreign Assets Control; Lisa Palluconi, Chief Counsel's Office, Office of Foreign Assets Control; Heather Maples, Securities and Exchange Commission.

DRONES AND THE NEW WAY OF WAR. 4/22, 1:00-2:30pm. Sponsor: Cato. Speakers: Steve Vladeck, professor of law and the associate dean for scholarship at American University Washington College of Law; Benjamin Wittes, senior fellow and research director in public law at the Brookings Institution; Rosa Brooks, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center; Benjamin Friedman, research fellow at the Cato Institute's Defense and Homeland Security Studies; Malou Innocent, foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

TRENDS IN NATURAL DISASTER RESPONSE AND THE ROLE OF REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. 4/22, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speaker: Rosa Malango, Chief Of External Relations And Partnership, Office For The Coordination Of Humanitarian Affairs In United Nations; Cletus Springer, Head Of Department Of Sustainable Development In Organization Of American States; Ian O'Donnell, Senior Information Architect In American Red Cross.

CYBERSPACE IN INDIA: GROWING AND MATURING. 4/22, 2:30-4:00pm. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Subimal Bhattacherjee, country head of General Dynamics Corporation India Private Limited; Ashley Tellis, senior associate of the South Asia Program at CEIP.

WHAT IS AT STAKE IN THE US-ROK 123 AGREEMENT? 4/22, 3:00-4:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS, Korea Chair. Speakers: Ambassador Christopher Hill, Dean, The Josef Korbel School of International Studies,University of Denver; Dr. Gary Samore, Executive Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University; Ms. Sharon Squassoni. Director and Senior Fellow, Proliferation Prevention Program, CSIS; Dr. Victor Cha, Senior Advisor and Korea Chair, CSIS.

CONSERVATION ON THIN ICE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CHANGING ARCTIC ENVIRONMENT. 4/22, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS, Europe Program. Speakers: Mr. William M. Eichbaum, vice president of Marine and Arctic Policy of the World Wildlife Fund; Mr. R. Andreas Kraemer, director of the Ecologic Institute; Dr. Kelly K. Falkner, director of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation.

CHINA'S BOOM -- WHY NOT EARLIER? WHY SO LONG? CAN IT LAST? 4/22, 5:00-6:30pm. Sponsor: Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Elliot School, George Washington University. Speaker: Thomas G. Rawski, Professor of Economics and History at the University of Pittsburgh.

AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY TOOLKIT: KEY INSTITUTIONS AND PROCESSES. 4/22, 5:30-7:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speakers: Author Charles Stevenson, professorial lecturer in the SAIS American Foreign Policy Program; Michael Mandelbaum, director of the SAIS American Foreign Policy Program; Nancy Bearg, former assistant to the vice president for national security affairs and former National Security Council staff; Eric Edelman, Roger Hertog distinguished practitioner-in-residence at the SAIS Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies; R. Russell Rumbaugh, director of the Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense program at the Stimson Center.

WHAT LIES AHEAD: RUSSIA'S POLITICAL AND ENERGY OUTLOOKS FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS. 4/22, 6:00-7:15Ppm. Sponsor: Elliott School, George Washington University. Speakers: Robert W. Orttung, Associate Research Professor of International Affairs at GWU; Oleg Kozlovsky, Fulbright Visiting Researcher at GWU.