Asia Policy Events, Monday June 22, 2026

SHADOW OF CATASTROPHE AND THE FUTURE OF NUCLEAR DETERRENCE. 6/22, Noon-1:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Speakers: Colin Kahl, Director, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford; Janice Stein, Founding Director, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy; Kristin Ven Bruusgaard, Chief, Norwegian Intelligence School. Moderator: Ulrich Kuehn, Head of Arms Control and Emerging Technologies, University of Hamburg.

PHILIPPINES ASEAN CHAIRSHIP 2026: ADVANCING REGIONAL RESILIENCE AND U.S.-ASEAN COLLABORATION. 6/22, 3:00-5:30pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsors: US-ASEAN Center; Embassy of the Philippines; US-Philippines Society. Speakers include: Jose Manuel G. Romualdez, Ambassador of the Philippines to the United States; Hunt VanderToll, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of State; Hans Siriban, Economic Minister and Consul, Philippine Embassy to the U.S.; Heather Variava, Senior Advisor, Bureau of Economic & Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

STABILITY MULTIPLIERS: FOOD AND CLIMATE SECURITY IN A FRACTURED WORLD. 6/22, 6:00-8:30pm (BST), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsors: Center for Climate and Security, Council on Strategic Risks; Strategic Climate Risks Initiative; Ditchley Foundation; Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University. Speakers: TBA; Moderator: Erin Sikorsky, Director, Center for Climate and Security, Council on Strategic Risks.

WOMEN ARTISTS IN ACTION: VISUALIZING THE 1970S WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENTS. 6/22, 6:00pm (JST), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Modern Japan History Workshop. Speaker: Kanako Tajima, PhD Candidate, Columbia University. 

TAIWAN’S STRATEGIC OUTLOOK AND THE FUTURE OF US-TAIWAN RELATIONS. 6/22, 6:30-8:30pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). Speakers: Tom Chih-Chiang Lee, Director-General, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office; Shihoko Goto, Vice President of Programs and Director, Asia Program, FPRI; Chris Estep is a Non-Resident Fellow, Asia Program, FPRI; Rupert Hammond-Chambers, President, US-Taiwan Business Council; Aaron Stein, President, FPRI; Vincent Wei-Cheng Wang, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Asia Program, FPRI.

Can the Food Consumption Tax be eliminated?

Takaichi Faces the Food Consumption Tax Problem

By Takuya Nishimura, Senior Fellow, Asia Policy Point
Former editorial writer for the Hokkaido Shimbun
You can find his blog, J Update here.
May 4, 2026
 
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is having difficulty living up to her campaign commitment to eliminate the consumption tax on food for two years. Takaichi plans to introduce a tax cut bill by the end of fiscal year 2026, that is, by the end of March 2027, but the sales registration system cannot be adjusted to reflect the elimination within that timeframe. The leading parties are discussing a one percent tax rate, which the system can manage, but which is different from what Takaichi committed to in February’s Lower House election.
 
When Takaichi decided this past January to have a Lower House snap election in February to strengthen her political base in the Diet, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) included this policy in its campaign platform. The LDP said that “we accelerate considering the exclusion of food from the consumption tax for two years.” It was a countermeasure to the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) proposal to permanently eliminate the consumption tax on food.
 
After the party achieved a sweeping victory in the election, Takaichi explained that she would accelerate discussion on a zero-percent consumption tax on food for two years as a temporary measure until a refundable tax credit bill was introduced. The food consumption tax cut and the refundable tax credit are intended to support low-income families.
 
To implement these policies, Takaichi launched the National Conference on Social Security in late February, which includes members of some opposition parties. During a series of meetings, the Conference realized that elimination of the consumption tax has a technical problem. Major software engineering companies testified in April before the Conference that it would take nine to twelve months to adjust retailers’ sales registration systems to include elimination of the consumption tax on food. The system could not readily include zero-percent taxation. This timeframe would not meet Takaichi’s deadline.
 
The engineers assured the Conference, however, that they could modify the system within three months if the adjustment were to one percent rather than zero percent. Reducing tax rate from the current eight percent to one percent eases the tax rate by a substantial amount. The chairman of the conference and the chief of the LDP Research Commission on Tax System, Itsunori Onodera, reportedly said “That’s a good idea.” So, the one percent consumption tax on food suddenly appeared on the table.
 
The size of the cut notwithstanding, one percent, is totally different to the public from zero percent. Citizens have already taken account of a zero percent tax. Indeed, they believe it to be one of Takaichi’s core promises to the voters in the February Lower House election. If she fails to implement it, the Takaichi Cabinet’s approval rating will fall; indeed, this consequence is already showing up in current polls.
 
The consumption tax cut has other problems besides the registration system. Restaurants will be adversely affected because consumers will prefer buying untaxed food in supermarkets to more expensive restaurant dinners. Local governments will lose revenue since the national government now sends 40 percent of the consumption tax proceeds to them. 
 
Despite these hurdles, Takaichi still plans on zero percent. She envisages a schedule in which the national Conference concludes its work in early summer, the cabinet submits tax elimination bills in the Diet’s fall session, and the Diet passes the bills by the end of 2026. The two-year hiatus of the food tax rate would take effect at the end of the fiscal year next March.
 
Takaichi’s ideas on the consumption tax cut have occasionally changed. In May 2005, two months before the Upper House election, Takaichi told her disappointment on negative stance on consumption tax cut by then prime minister Shigeru Ishiba. She proposed no consumption tax on foods. Then, when she ran for the LDP presidency last September, she became reluctant to push for the elimination. Her reluctance was based on her view that, given current price inflation, elimination of the tax would not be an efficient way to fight inflation. Moreover, she already understood the considerable length of time that would be required to change the retailers’ sales registration system. Observers believe that she opposed a total elimination to garner the support of an LDP heavyweight, Taro Aso, who also opposed a tax cut. She at least acknowledged the practical difficulties of a consumption tax cut at this time.
 
But Takaichi then confirmed her original position in January 2026 when she called the dissolution of the Lower House. She began to say that a consumption tax cut had been her long-cherished wish. But the remarkable fact is that Takaichi has never explicitly said that she has decided to introduce zero percent consumption tax on food. She has only said that she would accelerate consideration of a full if temporary elimination.
 
The consumption tax issue has destroyed some previous administrations. The LDP lost in the 1979 Lower House election when prime minister Masayoshi Ohira considered introducing a major indirect tax, including a food consumption tax. The defeat ignited a sharp division in the LDP, and Ohira died of fatigue the following year.
 
It was former prime minister Noboru Takeshita who introduced a consumption tax for the first time at three percent. But it became one of the reasons that the approval rating for him fell into the single digits. A later prime minister who decided the consumption tax rate from five percent to ten was not Shinzo Abe but Yoshihiko Noda in 2012. Noda led a three-party consensus of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the LDP, and Komeito to push for an integrated reform of social security and taxes in 2012, but his DPJ lost its government in the Lower House election later that year.
 
The consumption tax has been introduced as a fiscal resource to support senior citizens as Japan becomes an increasingly aging society. However, the Japanese people have been complaining about the tax on their daily consumption. The function of the tax and the popular desire to eliminate it are incompatible. Like other prime ministers, Takaichi is now facing this political tension.

Asian Cuisine for Western Tables

📚New Books on Asian Cuisine!🍜

Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: 

Cooking to the President’s Taste

By Adrian Miller, James Beard Award-Winning Author 

and Former Policy Analyst 

& 

Deborah Chang, Chef and Former Attorney

PURCHASE BOOK (5/8/2026)

Miller and Chang expand on the history of the many Asian Heritage chefs who have prepared meals for the presidents at the White House, at State Dinners, on Presidential Yachts, and at Camp David. He explains that he was able to identify presidential chefs with roots in China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. His research is enriched by the biographies, memoirs, cookbooks, and news coverage of the early chefs, and by his own interviews with former and current White House chefs. 

Chop Fry Watch Learn: 

Fu Pei-Mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food

By Michelle T. King, Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

PURCHASE BOOK (5/7/2026)

In 1949, a young Chinese housewife arrived in Taiwan and transformed herself from a novice to a natural in the kitchen. She launched a career as a cookbook author and television cooking instructor that would last four decades. Years later, in America, flipping through her mother’s copies of Fu Pei-mei’s Chinese cookbooks, King discovered more than the recipes to meals of her childhood. She found, in Fu’s story and in her food, a time when a generation of middle-class, female home cooks navigated the tremendous postwar transformations taking place across the world.

Simply Donabe: Japanese One-Pot Recipes

By Naoko Takei Moore, Owner, TOIRO 

(Specializes in donabe and Japanese artisan products)

PURCHASE BOOK (2/10/2026)

Donabe are the Japanese earthenware pots that have been used in Japan for centuries, and continue to be loved for their efficiency and beauty. Takei Moore showcases how you can create Japanese one-pot dishes at home. Recipes range from Sea Bream Shabu Shabu and Sweet and Sour Minced Pork Hotpot, to Egg Porridge and Miso-Simmered Ramen, as well as sides like Green Beans in Walnut Miso Cream and Quick-Pickled Napa Cabbage and sweet treats such as Sake-Kasu Pound Cake and Matcha Ice Cream.

*Books purchased through the links here support Asia Policy Point*

Books selected on the APP website are not a sign of endorsement. 

They are simply new and interesting.

Asian Art Corner

ARTS JAPONICA

GLOBAL SAMURAI CONFERENCE. 4/10-11, HYBRID. Sponsors: British Museum and SOAS. Speakers: Filippo Cervelli (SOAS); Rosina Buckland (British Museum); Oleg Benesch (University of York); Joe Nickols (British Museum); Edward Boyle (Nichibunken); Rebekah Clements (Autonomous University of Barcelona and ICREA); Helen Macnaughtan (SOAS); Birgit Tremml-Werner (Stockholm University); Satona Suzuki (SOAS); Nam-lin Hur (University of British Columbia); Chika Tonooka (Cambridge University); Luke Gartlan (University of St Andrews); Sarah Thal (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Mark Ravina (University of Texas Austin); Sven Saaler (Sophia University); Michele Monserrati (Smith College); Maria Framke (University of Erfurt); Tatiana Linkhoeva (New York University); Ignacio López-Calvo (University of California Merced); Hiromu Nagahara (MIT); Natasha Bennett (Royal Armouries); Julie Reynolds and Emile de Bruijn (National Trust); Sarah Panzer (Missouri State University); Clemens Büttner (University of Heidelberg); Ethan Mark (Leiden University); Thomas D. Conlan and Christina Lee (Princeton University). This event is part of the public programme supporting the exhibition Samurai (open until 4 May). PURCHASE EXHIBITION CATALOG: https://amzn.to/4mqEJ1h

SAMURAI: THE MAKING OF A GLOBAL ICON. 4/23, 5:30–6:30pm (DST), 12:30-1:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: British Museum. Speakers: Satona Suzuki, Senior Lecturer in Japanese and Modern Japanese History at SOAS; Oleg Benesch, Professor and Head of the Department of History at the University of York and co-author of the exhibition book, Samurai; Matt Alt, co-founder AltJapan, a Tokyo-based company that specialises in localisation and author of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World (2021). This event is part of the public programme supporting the exhibition Samurai (open until 4 May).

FORTHCOMING art two special issues of the Japan Review focused on the samurai.

And if you had enough of all this Samurai stuff--most of which is made up for Western consumption--see here for a humorous take: LORD IT'S THE SAMURAI.

BOOK TALK: SIMPLY DONABE! (JAPANESE CLAY POT COOKING). 4/ 19, Noon-2:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Kinokuniya New York. Speaker: author Ms. Naoko Takei Moore, owner of TOIRO, an online and brick-and-mortar shop in West Hollywood that specializes in Japanese kitchen goods. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/4dPUYTd

TOIRO kitchen supply (donabe), https://toirokitchen.com/

BOOK TALK: IMPERIAL ANIMATIONS IN TRANSPACIFIC CONTEMPORARY ART. 5/4, 9:00-10:30pm (EDT), 9:00-10:30am (HKT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Centre for Cultural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Speaker: author Namiko Kunimoto, Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies, Associate Professor, Department of History of Art, Ohio State University; Moderator: Prof. SaeHim Park (CUHK). PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/4bImyzf

THESE EVENTS ARE PAST BUT MAY HAVE RECORDINGS

*EXHIBITING JAPAN IN MID-CENTURY NEW YORK. 3/30, 6:00-8:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in NY. Speaker: Dr. Angus Lockyer, author of Exhibitionist Japan: The Spectacle of Modern Development (Cambridge, 2025) and Japan: A History in Objects (Thames and Hudson, 2026). He currently teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. 

*REMAKING THE ACADEMIC MUSEUM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. 4/2, 8:00-9:15am (JST), 7:00-8:15pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Asia Society. Speakers: James Steward, Director, Princeton University Art Museum; Kit Brooks, Curator of Asian Art, Princeton University Art Museum. 

*FROM KIRIN TO CASA BRUTUS: HISTORY OF JAPANESE DESIGN. 4/2, 6:30-8:00pm (JST), 5:30-7:00am (EST), HYBRID. Sponsor: Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), Temple University, Japan. Speakers: Ian Lynam | Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Temple University Japan; Moderator: Benoit Hardy-Chartrand | Senior Lecturer Temple University Japan & ICAS Faculty Fellow. 

What happens when Japan curates its aesthetic for the world?

By Erik Augustin Palm, Japan Times, Mar 28, 2026
     Scathing review of the Japanese government's exhibition of the Japan Sui Collection in Kyoto and Paris that is meant to showcase Japanese regional crafts and cuisine framed around the concept of sui (an Edo Period [1603-1867] concept of aesthetic refinement).

Official Japan's penchant for dealing with the West by leaning into Orientalism can be startling. It is so ingrained that Japanese embassies and consulates still display sensoga, the carely controlled statist art of 1930s wartime Japan. Japan has a vibrant modern art community. It is a shame that it is not promoted more.

Isamu Noguchi

In full swing

from the Monocole Minute on Design, March 18, 2025.

Isamu Noguchi is a household name thanks to his abstract totem-like sculptures, Vitra’s bestselling glass Coffee Table and the ubiquitous Akari paper lamps. Still, the Japanese-American designer maintained that his best projects never saw the light of day. He harboured ambitions to be an urban planner, particularly to make playgrounds, but city officials wouldn’t hear of it. Those torpedoed ideas, such as this swing set, are the subject of Noguchi’s New York, an exhibition at The Noguchi Museum in Queens, which runs until 13 September.

This three-piece swing was originally conceived in 1940 for a playground in Hawaii, which would also have included a curved slide and a jungle gym. That plan was derailed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a year later, with Noguchi spending seven months in an internment camp in Arizona. Later, he pitched the scheme in New York but was unsuccessful; a version of the design finally went up in Atlanta in 1975. With hindsight, everyone can agree that Noguchi should not have had to work so hard to bring play to public spaces. 

Monday Asia Events December 12, 2022

MAPPING CHINA’S PATHWAY TO A CARBON-NEUTRAL FOOD SYSTEM. 12/12, 9:00–10:15am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: Min Hu, Principal and Co-Founder, iGDP; Meian Chen, Program Director and Senior Analyst, iGDP; Kevin Mo, Principal, iGDP; Patty Fong, program director on Climate and Health & Wellbeing at FOF; Moderator: Jennifer L. Turner, Director, China Environment Forum & Manager, Global Choke Point Initiative, Wilson Center.

RAMACHANDRA GUHA ON MODI’S INDIA. 12/12, 11:00am (EST), ONLINE. Sponsor: Foreign Policy. Speakers: Ramachandra Guha, Historian and biographer, author, Environmentalism: A Global History and India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy; Ravi Agrawal, Editor in chief, Foreign Policy.

THE OUTLOOK FOR STRATEGIC COMPETITION IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY. 12/12, 2:00-3:00pm (EST), ONLINE. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: Duncan Wood; Vice President for Strategy & New Initiatives; Senior Advisor to the Mexico Institute; Alexandra Helfgott, Office of VP of Strategy and New Initiatives; Former Research Intern, Mexico Institute; Kellee Wicker; Director, Science and Technology Innovation Program, Cordell Hull; Global Fellow; Jimmy Goodrich, Vice President, Global Policy, Semiconductors Industry Association; Moderator: Don McLellan, International Co-Chair, Woodrow Wilson Center National Cabinet.

REIMAGINING THE TPP: REVISIONS THAT COULD FACILITATE U.S. REENTRY REPORT LAUNCH EVENT. 12/12, 2:00-3:00pm (EST), WEBINAR: Sponsor: Asia Society. Speakers: Co-authors Wendy Cutler, ASPI Vice President and Clete Willems, partner at Akin Gump; Moderator: Bob Davis, Wall Street Journal, Senior Editor.

Monday in Washington, September 17, 2018

WILL DEMOCRACY WIN? THE RECURRING BATTLE BETWEEN LIBERALISM AND ITS ADVERSARIES. 9/17, 9:30-10:45am. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Robert Kagan, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Program, Brookings, Former Member, State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World; Amb. Norman Eisen, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, The Last Palace: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House. Moderators: William A. Galston, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings; Alina Polyakova, Fellow, Foreign Policy, Brookings. Moderator: John R. Allen, President, Brookings.

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CONVERSATION WITH SIX FORMER USTRS. 9/17, 10:00am-Noon. Speaker: William Brock, U.S. Trade Representative (1981-1985); Carla Hills, U.S. Trade Representative (1989-1993); Michael Kantor, U.S. Trade Representative (1993-1996); Charlene Barshefsky, U.S. Trade Representative (1996-2001), Susan Schwab, U.S. Trade Representative (2006-2009); Ronald Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative (2009-2013); William Alan Reinsch, Senior Adviser, Scholl Chair in International Business, CSIS.

CHINA'S ROLE IN MYANMAR'S INTERNAL CONFLICTS. 9/17, 11:00am-12:30pm. Sponsor: U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Speakers: Amb. Derek Mitchell, Former U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar, President, National Democratic Institute; Daniel Twining, President, International Republican Institute; David Steinberg, Professor Emeritus, Asian Studies, GTU, Nancy Lindborg, President, USIP. Moderator: Jennifer Staats, Director, East and Southeast Asia Programs, U.S. Institute of Peace.

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WHY ISLAMIST EXTREMISTS QUIT TERRORISM: INSIGHTS FROM INDONESIA'S DE-RADICALIZATION PROGRAMS. 9/17,12:30-1:45pm. Sponsor: US-Indonesia Society (USINDO). Speakers: author, Julie Chernov Hwang; Moderator: William M. Wise, Practitioner-in-Residence, Southeast Asia Studies, SAIS. cation: USINDO, 1625 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 550. Contact:

DISCUSSION ON NATIONAL SECURITY WITH DIA DIRECTOR ROBERT AHSLEY. 9/17, 1:30-3:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speaker: Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley, Jr., Director, Defense Intelligence Agency; Moderators: Seth G. Jones, Harold Brown Chair, Director, Transnational Threats Project, Senior Adviser, International Security Program; Juan C. Zarate, Chairman, Financial Integrity Network, Senior Adviser, Transnational Threats Project and Human Rights Initiative.

JAPAN IN ASIA: ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEW GEOPOLITICS. 9/17, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Pek Koon Heng-Blackburn, Assistant Professor, School of International Service, Director, ASEAN Studies Center, American University; Fukunari Kimura, Chief Economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Professor, Economics, Keio University; Meredith Sumpter, Head, Research Strategy & Operations, Eurasia Group; Shujiro Urata, Dean, Professor, Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Waseda University. Moderator: Mireya Solis, Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies, Senior Fellow, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Brookings.

SINO-US ECONOMIC AND TRADE RELATIONS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. 9/17, 9:00am-4:30pm. Sponsors: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE); China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Speakers will include: The Hon. Jacob J. Lew, Former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Partner, Lindsay Goldberg; C. Fred Bergsten, Senior Fellow, Director Emeritus, PIIE; Cui Tiankai, Ambassador to the United States from the People’s Republic of China; Caroline Freund, Director, Trade for Regional Integration and Investment Climate, World Bank; Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Nonresident Senior Fellow, PIIE; Jiang Xiaojuan, Vice Chairperson, Committee of Social Construction of the National People’s Congress; Adam S. Posen, President, PIIE; Xie Fuzhan, President, CASS; Yu Yongding, Former Director, Institute of World Economics and Politics, CASS. Streaming only.

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LEGACY OF ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: REMARKS BY MADELINE K. ALBRIGHT. 9/17, 4:30-6:00pm. Sponsor: Foreign Policy Institute, (FPI), SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speakers: Vali Nasr, Dean, SAIS, Johns Hopkins; Madeline K. Albright, former Secretary of State; Moderator: Carla P. Freeman, Director, FPI, SAIS, Johns Hopkins.

FOOD INSECURITY AS A SECURITY CHALLENGE. 9/17, 6:00-7:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Amb. Ertharin Cousin, Former Executive Director, World Food Programme; Moderator: Nina Easton, Senior Associate, CSIS Chair, Fortune Most Powerful Women International, Co-Chair, Fortune Global Forum.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE WITH FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: THE LIVES OF OTHERS. 9/17, 6:30-8:00pm. Sponsors: Future Tense; Slate; New America; Arizona State University. Speaker: Francis Fukuyama, Senior Fellow, Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, author End of History and the Last Man.

Monday in Washington, April 23, 2018

CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE REVISITED. 4/23, 11:00am-1:00pm, Webcast. Sponsor: PIIE. Speakers: Ed Balls, Research Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, Harvard University; Anna Stansbury, PhD Scholar, Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy, Harvard University; Hon. Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University; Adam S. Posen, President, PIIE.

ADVOCACY FOR SOUTH KOREA’S INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: ESCAPE FROM DEVELOPMENTALISM AND ASIANIZATION OF NORDIC DEVELOPMENT AID WITH TAEKYOON KIM. 4/23, 3:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: Institute for Korean Studies, Elliott School, GWU. Speaker: Dr. Taekyoon Kim, Associate Professor of International Development, Former Associate Dean for International Affairs, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT: SMART INVESTING FOR GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY. 4/23, 4:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Gilbert F. Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development; Karen Brooks, Director, Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets, International Food Policy Research Institute; Julie Howard, Senior Adviser, Global Food Security Project, CSIS, Senior Adviser to the Associate Provost, Dean for International Studies and Programs, Michigan State University. Moderator: Johannes F. Linn, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Brookings.

Monday in Washington, June 5, 2017

FROM SOVIET PROPAGANDA TO THE ‘FIREHOSE OF RUSSIAN FALSEHOOD.’ 6/5, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: University of Southern California. Speakers: Adam Clayton Powell III, Director, Washington Policy Initiatives; Scott M. Rauland, Senior Advisor, U.S. State Department Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY: A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH BILL FORD. 6/5, 2:00pm. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speaker: Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company; Moderator: Frederick Kempe, President, CEO, Atlantic Council.

THE NATIONAL SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. 6/5, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsors: Environmental and Energy Study Institute, Center for Climate and Security, Henry M. Jackson Foundation. Speakers: Brigadier General Gerald Galloway, Former United States Army; Hon. Sherri Goodman, Former Deputy Undersecretary, Defense, Senior Fellow, Wilson Center; General Ron Keys, Former United States Air Force; Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, Former United States Navy; Hon. John Conger, Former Principal Deputy Undersecretary, Defense, Senior Advisor, CSIS.

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ALL MEASURES SHORT OF WAR: THE CONTEST FOR THE 21ST CENTURY AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN POWER. 6/5, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Project on International Order and Strategy, Brookings. Speakers: Author, Thomas Wright, Director, Center on the United States and Europe; Gérard Araud, Ambassador, France; Robert Kagan, Senior Fellow, Project on International order and Strategy. Moderator: Susan Glasser, Chief International Affairs Columnist, Politico. PURCHASE BOOK

FOUR FAMINES: UNPRECEDENTED NEED UNDERFUNDED RESPONSE. 6/5, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Global Food Security Project, CSIS; Speakers: José Graziano da Silva, Director General, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization; David Beasley, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme; Helen Gayle, CEO, McKinsey Social Initiative, Trustee, CSIS. Moderator: Kimberly Flowers, Director, Global Food Security Project. 

Monday in Washington February 27, 2017

CRUDE STRATEGY: RETHINKING THE U.S. MILITARY COMMITMENT TO DEFEND PERSIAN GULF OIL. 2/27, 11:00am-12:30pm. Sponsor: Cato Institute. Speakers: Editor Charles Glaser, Professor of Political Science, Director, Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, GWU; Rosemary Kelanic, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Williams College; Author Kenneth Vincent, Visiting Fellow, Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, GWU; John Glaser, Associate Director, Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute; Moderator: Emma Ashford, Research Fellow, Cato Institute.

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WOMENOMICS: PROGRESS MADE AND CHALLENGES REMAINING. 2/27, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsors: Asia Society Policy Institute; Simon Chair in Political Economy, CSIS. Speakers: Matthew P. Goodman, Simon Chair in Political Economy, Senior Adviser, Asian Economics, CSIS; Haruno Yoshida, Vice Chair of the Board of Councilors, Keidanren, President, Representative Director, BT Japan Corporation; Mitsuru Claire Chino, Executive Officer, General Counsel, ITOCHU Corporation; Keiko Honda, Executive Vice President, Chief Executive Officer, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency; Moderator: Wendy Cutler, Vice President, Manager, DC Office, Asia Society Policy Institute.

REMAPPING IR: "GENDER, WAR, AND CONFLICT". 2/27, 12:30-1:30pm. Sponsor: Mortara Center for International Studies, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Speaker: Laura Sjoberg, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Florida.

HOW TO TAKE RELIGION SERIOUSLY IN WORLD POLITICS: CAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES HELP? 2/27, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University. Speakers: Katherine Brown, Lecturer, Islamic Studies, Department of Religion and Theology, University of Birmingham; Jocelyn, Senior Fellow, Berkeley Center, Associate Professor, Department of Government, Georgetown University; Andrew Davies, Reader, Public Understanding of Religion; Director, Edward Cadbury Center; Francis Davis, Professor of Religion, Communities, and Public Policy, Department of Theology and Religion, Director, Edward Cadbury Center for Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham.

ALIGNING PARTNERSHIPS FOR SECURITY: A HUMAN RIGHTS BASED APPROACH TO SECURITY AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION. 2/27, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Human Rights Initiative, CSIS. Speakers: JJ Messner, Executive Director, Fund For Peace; Leana D. Bresnahan, Chief, Human Rights Office, U.S. Southern Command; Albert Yelyang, National Network Coordinator, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding; Campbell Corrigan, Senior Global Director of Security, Newmont Mining Corporation; Shannon N. Green, Director, Senior Fellow, Human Rights Initiative, CSIS.

TRUMP FOREIGN POLICY: CHANGING AND DISRUPTING GLOBAL NORMS. 2/27, 6:00pm, Reception. Sponsors: Women’s Foreign Policy Group; New York University. Speakers: Anne Gearan, Diplomatic Correspondent, Washington Post; Julie Hirscheld, White House Correspondent, New York Times; Jay Solomon, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Wall Street Journal; Moderator: Elisabeth Bumiller, Washington Bureau Chief, New York Times. 

NEWSMAKER WITH DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS NANCY PELOSI AND CHUCK SCHUMER. 2/27, 2:00pm. Sponsor: National Press Club. Speakers: Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader; Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

JAPAN’S TRADE POLICY IN AN ERA OF GROWING ANTI-GLOBALISM. 2/27, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speakers: Vinod K. Aggarwal, Professor, Travers Family Senior Faculty Fellow, Department of Political Science, Director, APEC Study Center, University of California, Berkeley; Yukiko Fukagawa, Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University; Takashi Terada, Professor, Department of Political Science, Doshisha University, Operating Advisor, U.S.-Japan Research Institute; Shujiro Urata, Dean, Professor, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University; Moderator: Mireya Solís, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies.

PLANT SCIENCE RESEARCH FOR GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY. 2/27, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: U.S-Japan Research Institute (USJI). Speakers: Hiroshi Ezura, Professor, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba; Jocelyn Kenneth Campbell Rose, Professor, Plant Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University; James J. Giovannoni, Professor, ARS/BTI, Ithaca NY, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Plant Biology, Cornell University; Tohru Ariizumi, Associate Professor, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba.

COMBATING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE. 2/27, 6:00-8:00pm, Reception. Sponsor: World Affairs Council. Speakers: Salman Sufi, Director General, Chief Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit (SRU), Punjab, Pakistan; Lyric Thompson, Director, Policy and Advocacy, International Center for Research on Women; Moderator: Barbara Wien, Professor, Masters Program in International Peace and Conflict Resolution, School for International Service, American University. 

Monday in Washington, October 28, 2013

MEN, PEACE, AND SECURITY SYMPOSIUM: AGENTS OF CHANGE. 10/28, 9:00am-7:30pm, 10/29, 9:00am-6:00pm. Sponsor: US Institute of Peace (USIP). Speakers: Donald Steinberg, CEO and President, World Learning; Jim Marshall, President, USIP; Raymond Odierno, Chief of Staff, US Army; Maria Correia, Sector Manager, World bank; Satu Santala, Executive Director, Nordic and Baltic Countries, World Bank; Christopher Kilmartin, Visiting Professor, US Air Force Academy; Chantal Oudraat, Executive Director, SIPRI North America and Women in International Security; Zainab Bangura, Special Representative to the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, UN.

CHINA'S 5TH GENERATION LEADERSHIP'S APPROACHES TO DEFENSE AND SECURITY. 10/28, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Speaker: Alexander Neill, Senior Fellow, Asia-Pacific Security.

NSA SURVEILLANCE: A NECESSARY EVIL? 10/28, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: Alexander Hamilton Society, SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Debaters: Steven Bradbury, Partner, Dechert LLP; David Cole, Professor of Law, Georgetown University.

THE SECRET FINANCIAL LIFE OF FOOD: FROM COMMODITIES MARKETS TO SUPERMARKETS. 10/28, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: InfoShop, World Bank. Speaker: Author Kara Newman, Food, Wine, and Spirits Writer.

POLITICAL TURMOIL, HUMAN COSTS: REFLECTIONS ON THE KASHMIR CONFLICT. 10/28, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: South Asia Program, Carnegie. Speakers: Rahul Pandita, Journalist and Author; Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate, Carnegie.

NEW LEADERSHIP IN TEHRAN: TIME FOR RAPPROCHEMENT? 10/28, 4:00-6:00pm. Sponsor: American Iranian Council; Elliot School, GWU. Speakers: John Limbert, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran; Shireen Hunter, Visiting Fellow, Center for Christian Muslim Understanding.

BUILDING BETTER GENERALS. 10/28, 5:30-6:15pm. Sponsor: Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Speakers: Paula Thornhill, Director, Strategy and Doctrine Program, RAND; David Barno, Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow, CNAS; Nora Bensahel, Deputy Director of Studies, CNAS.

IS GLOBALIZATION IN NEED OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE? 10/28, 5:30-7:00pm. Sponsor: Center on the US and Europe, Brookings. Speakers: Ted Piccone, Acting Vice President and Director, Foreign Policy Program, Brookings; Pascal Lamy, former Director-General, World Trade Organization; Robert Zoellick, Peterson Institute of International Economics.

BUILDING RESILIENCE TO EXTREME WEATHER. 10/28, 6:00-7:30pm. Sponsors: Georgetown University Science in the Public Interest; American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); American Chemical Society (ACS). Speakers: Bill Hooke, American Meteorological Society; John Nielson-Gammon, Texas State Climatologist; Donald Preston, Swiss Re.

7TH ANNUAL CHINA TOWN HALL: LOCAL CONNECTIONS, NATIONAL REFLECTIONS. 10/28, 7:00. Sponsor: National Committee on US-China Relations. Live webcast with Madeleine Albright, the 64th United States Secretary of State, followed by local presentations at 60 different locations from on-site China specialists addressing topics of particular interest to the community. A national day of programming designed to provide Americans across the United States and beyond the opportunity to discuss these issues with leading experts.

Prize winning noodles

Chef Hou Chun-sheng

One of Taiwan's top culinary artists, Chef Hou Chun-sheng, winner of the 2011 Taipei Beef Noodle Soup Competition, will visit Washington, DC on February 15 to serve his version of beef noodles during a reception at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery. 

The noodle preparation demonstration and tasting will be followed by a screening of Eat Drink Man Woman (1994, 124 minutes).

Stew-style beef noodle soup (or hung shao new row mien) is widely considered a national dish in Taiwan, where it was first created. It is a must-eat for international gourmets and the perfect dish to prepare viewers for Eat Drink Man Woman – Taiwanese Director Ang Lee's food-centered film about an elderly chef and his family as they experience the trials and joys of life in modern Taiwan. 

This evening of home-style Taiwan food culture will be held on Wednesday, February 15 at 6:00pm at the Freer Gallery. It is free and open to the public, presented by the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery and by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office. For more information contact Ms. Thalia Lin.