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.

APP'S BOOKS OF THE WEEK of April 12, 2026

📚Books of the Week📖

 

Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots 

of North Korea's Personality Cult

By Jonathan Cheng, Beijing Bureau Chief, Wall Street Journal

PURCHASE BOOK 4/14/2026

North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, was the son of two fervent Christians who created his own cult-like ideolog, Kimilsungism. It was an excuse that fostered idolatry that elevated him, and his successor son and grandson, to Christlike status. Drawing on letters, diaries, and never-before-unearthed archival material, Cheng tells the true story of a country shrouded in fictions and oppression.

Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China

By Eyck Freymann, Hoover Fellow, Stanford University

PURCHASE BOOK 4/15/2026

Freymann argues that Washington's deterrence strategy, especially against China, must extend beyond conventional military power and familiar threats of mutually assured destruction. America must work with allies to develop a bold new vision of technological and economic statecraft--and a plan to secure its interests if deterrence fails. 

West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East
By Mohammed Soliman, Senior Fellow, Middle East Institute

PURCHASE BOOK 2/3/2026

Soliman shows how the U.S. could lock in a new balance of power in the Eurasian supercontinent to offset China and Russia's efforts to disrupt the status quo and create a rival system. This new strategy rests on three layered coalitions ― geostrategic, hard-power, and geo-technological ― that together can anchor a stable order stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. But this will require a fundamental shift in U.S. grand strategy, with 'West Asia' at its core.

*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.

Unification Church Again

Japanese Court Orders Dissolution of the Unification Church

By Takuya Nishimura, APP Senior Fellow, Former Editorial Writer for The Hokkaido Shimbun

The views expressed by the author are his own and are not associated with The Hokkaido Shimbun
You can find his blog, J Update here.
March 31, 2025. Special to Asia Policy Point

On March 25, the Tokyo District Court issued an order to dissolve the religious corporation, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), broadly known as former Unification Church (UC). The Court found that the UC had damaged its believers and their families through requirements for expensive donations. The Federation plans to appeal. The broader social issue, which goes beyond the district court’s ruling, is how to draw a line between religious groups and politics.
 
The UC was established in the Republic of Korea in 1954 and was incorporated in Japan in 1964. It changed its name to the current one in 2015. In several instances in the 1980s and 1990s, UC believers reportedly suffered from the expensive purchase of purported “spiritual” goods, such as porcelain vases or Korean ginseng.
 
The government, however, ignored these scams until the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. The shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, whose mother had donated over 100 million yen to the UC, plunging her family into poverty, explained that his motivation for the assassination was the close relationship between the UC and Abe.
 
Acknowledging accumulated damages on the believers, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology requested from the court a dissolution order to the FFWPU in October 2023. The Ministry argued that there had been at least 32 civil cases in which courts in Japan had ordered the Federation to compensate its believers’ from the financial harm caused by sales of putative religious objects and from compulsory donations.
 
Tokyo District Court found that the damages in those 32 cases between 1980 and 2009 amounted to 1,784 million yen on 168 believers, and recognized other 985 million yen of damages on 179 believers after 2009 when the federation issued a declaration of compliance. Based on those illegal activities, Tokyo District Court ordered dissolution of the FFWPU.
 
The Court based its order of dissolution on Article 81 of the Religious Corporation Act, which authorizes a court to dissolve a religious corporation when it commits an illegal activity obviously against the public welfare. The activity against the public welfare in this case was the FFWPU’s donation requirement, which rendered believers insolvent and unable to maintain a reasonable lifestyle.
 
There are two earlier dissolution cases that may be instructive. In 1995, in a fortunately rare case, a court ordered that Aum Shinrikyo be dissolved for its sarin attack on the Tokyo subway. In 2002, in a case like that of the FFWPU, a court ordered the dissolution of the Myokakuji Temple for fraud in seeking donations for their baseless spiritual powers. Both cases, however, were based on criminal law. The order against the FFWPU case is the first one based on violations of the civil code.
 
The FFWPU immediately announced its intention to appeal. “The civil court judgements, which are listed as grounds for dissolution, are cases of 32 years ago in average. All damages for the court judgements have already been paid and each of the cases has already been settled,” said the president of FFWPU, Tomihiro Tanaka, in his press conference at Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
 
Stripping the FFWPU of its status as a religious corporation does not prevent it from practicing its religion. Tanaka, however, contends that the court decision would interfere with the FFWPU’s freedom of religion under Article 20 of the Japanese constitution.  The FFWPU’s legal director, Norishige Kondo, has also noted that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Japan has adopted, confirms the rights of religious groups.
 
However, Article 18-3 of the covenant states that “Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.” 
 
The Deputy Chief Defense Attorney of Lawyers Across Japan for the Victims of the Unification Church, Masaki Kito, has asserted that the believers’ donations to the Federation disturbed their own constitutional rights: rights to their own property and a basic right to their life. According to Kito, the FFWPU also violated the believers’ freedom of marriage in the UC’s mass weddings.   
 
The appeals court faces a complicated task in reconciling the various rights asserted.  If the court affirms the decision of the district court, the process of dissolution will begin. Tokyo District Court estimates that the Federation possessed 1,136 million yen of assets at the time of March 2022. Once dissolution process starts, those assets will be liquidated and the FFWPU will no longer receive tax relief for religious corporation.
 
The nature of the FFWPU’s involvement in political activities over the years is not entirely clear. The former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, grandfather of Shinzo Abe, was one of the backers of the political branch of the UC, the International Federation for Victory over Communication. The founder of UC, Sun Myung Moon, urged his followers to support the Seiwa-kai, one of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) factions once led by Shinzo Abe and his father Shintaro Abe. Tanaka has stated, however, that each believer may vote for a candidate in each electoral district that best reflects their family values. Acceptable candidates are not limited to members of the LDP.
 
On the other side, the lawyers for the victims have emphasized that the FFWPU is under the strict control of the religion’s headquarters in South Korea and has a strong influence on Japanese politics, especially in the time of the Shinzo Abe administration. The lawyers have called for legislation to regulate foreign lobbyists or spies and to preserve the assets of the FFWPU to ensure the compensation of the victims as ordered by the district court and before the federation sends funds to South Korea or another foreign country.
 
Stressing that the LDP had cut off its relationship with the FFWPU, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba warned LDP lawmakers against any ties to the FFWPU. Ishiba observed that penalties for receipt of donations or other support from the Federation were possible. Whether the party can campaign without the FFWPU will be closely watched in the Upper House election this summer.
 
N.B.: The Unification Church [Family Federation for World Peace and Unification International], is also involved in U.S. politics through its ownership the conservative Washington Times and funding of conservative organizations such as CPAC. The family is currently in a legal dispute over the late-Reverand Moon’s assets

Monday Asia Events July 8, 2024

NATIONAL CONSERVATISM CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON, DC. 7/8-9, HYBRID. Sponsor: Edmund Burke Foundation. Speakers Include: Rt Hon Suella Braverman, KC MP, Secretary of State, Home Department and Member of Parliament for Fareham; Elbridge Colby, Co-founder, Principal, The Marathon Initiative; Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), Senior United States Senator, Missouri; Ram Madhav, President of the India Foundation (IF); David P. Goldman, Deputy Editor, Asia Times. 

DAY ONE FOR THE NEW UK GOVERNMENT. 7/8, 1:00-2:15pm (BST), 8:00-9:15am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Chatham House. Speakers: Lord Simon McDonald, former Permanent Under Secretary, Head of Diplomatic Service, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Creon Butler, Director, Global Economy and Finance Programme; Dr Tim Benton, Director, Environment and Society Centre; Sunder Katwala, Director, British Future; Olivia O’Sullivan, Director, UK in the World Programme. 

REVISITING THE LEGACY OF SHINZO ABE. 7/8, 9:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Stimson. Speakers: Kunihiko Miyake, Senior Advisor, Canon Institute for Global Studies; Tobias Harris, Founder, Principal, Japan Foresight LLC; Yuki Tatsumi, Co-Director, East Asia Program, Stimson Center. 

CRIMEA: WHERE RUSSIA'S WAR BEGAN AND WHERE UKRAINE WILL WIN. 7/8, 10:00-11:15am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Jamestown Foundation. Speakers: Peter Mattis, President, Jamestown Foundation; Dr. Taras Kuzio, professor, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, associate research fellow, Henry Jackson Society; Amb. Daniel Fried, Weiser Family Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council, director, National Endowment for Democracy, Visiting Professor, Warsaw University. 

PIVOTAL STATES: IS A DEEPER ALLIANCE WITH SAUDI ARABIA WORTH IT? 7/8, 10:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Kim Ghattas, Contributing Editor, Financial Times, author, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East; Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Ambassador Dennis Ross, Counselor, William Davidson Distinguished Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 

MARITIME SECURITY AND NEXT-GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES: A PLATFORM FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN NATO AND ITS ASIA-PACIFIC PARTNERS. 7/8, 10:00-11:30am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Benedetta Berti, Head of Policy Planning, Office of the Secretary-General, NATO; Tsuneo Watanabe, Senior Research Fellow, Sasakawa Peace Foundation; Peter Rough, Senior Fellow and Director, Center on Europe and Eurasia; Kenneth R. Weinstein, Japan Chair, Hudson. 

BOOK TALK: ACCIDENTAL DIPLOMATS AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AND THE COLD WAR. 7/8, Noon-1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Berkeley Center, Georgetown University. Speakers: Judd Birdsall, assistant professor, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Georgetown University; author Philip Dow, head, Black Forest Academy, Kandern, Germany. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3WcdQ5z 

POLICY BRIEF LAUNCH EVENT: SECURING LEBANON TO PREVENT A LARGER HEZBOLLAH-ISRAEL WAR AND WIDER ESCALATION. 7/8, Noon-1:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Middle East Institute (MEI). Speakers: Paul Salem, Vice President for International Engagement, MEI; Amb. Ed Gabriel, President and CEO, American Task Force on Lebanon, Former US Ambassador to Morocco; Patricia Karam, Senior Advisor, American Task Force on Lebanon; Fadi Nicholas Nassar, US-Lebanon Fellow, MEI; Amb. David Hale, Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center, Former US Ambassador to Lebanon.

IS IT ME OR THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM? CHANGING CHINESE ATTITUDES TOWARD INEQUALITY: A BIG DATA CHINA EVENT. 7/8, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Scott Rozelle, Co-Director, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions; Martin Whyte, John Zwaanstra Professor, International Studies and Sociology, Emeritus, Harvard University; Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser, Trustee Chair, Chinese Business and Economics, CSIS; Ilaria Mazzocco, Senior Fellow, Trustee Chair, Chinese Business and Economics, CSIS; Elizabeth Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government, Harvard University; Jessica C. Teets, Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College; Qin Gao, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work, Director, China Center for Social Policy, Columbia University. 

THE MORNING AFTER: ANALYSING THE RESULTS OF THE FRENCH ELECTION. 7/8, 2:30-3:30am (EDT), 8:30-9:30am (CEST), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Speakers: Célia Belin, Head, ECFR Paris; Ulrike Franke, Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR; Camille Lons, Deputy Head, ECFR Paris. 

LAUNCH OF WOMEN LEAD: WOMEN LEADING EFFECTIVE AND ACCOUNTABLE DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE. 7/8, 2:30pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Jennifer Klein, Assistant to the President, Director, White House Gender Policy Council; Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, Ambassador-at-large, Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, Department of State. 

Monday Asia Events October 23, 2023

CHINA’S STANDING IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH – TAKEAWAYS FROM THE BELT AND ROAD FORUM. 10/23, 9:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Victoria Chonn-Ching, Nonresident Fellow, Atlantic Council; Michael Schuman, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council; Oscar Meywa Otele, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Nairobi; Sanusha Naidu, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Global Dialogue. 

US LAUNCH OF THE 2023 OECD GOING FOR GROWTH REPORT. 10/23, 9:00am-12:15pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Peterson Institute (PIIE). Speakers: Adam S. Posen, PIIE president; Luiz de Mello, director of the Policy Studies Branch at the Economics Department of the OECD. 

BEYOND CLIMATE: HOW NATURE LOSS UNDERMINES PEACE AND SECURITY. 10/23, 10:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsors: Center for American Progress (CAP); The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD); World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Speakers: Monica Medina, President and CEO, Wildlife Conservation Society; Andrew Zolli, Chief Impact Officer, Planet; Dr Winnie Kiiru, Executive Director, Mpala Research Centre; Dr Erin McFee, Professor of Practice, Climate Security, William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.

 CYBERSECURITY & INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY’S (CISA) EVOLVING .GOV MISSION: REPORT ROLLOUT EVENT. 10/23, 10:00am-Noon (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: CSIS, International Security Program. Speakers: Emily Harding, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, International Security Program; Malcolm Harkins, Former Chief Security & Privacy Officer, Intel; Benjamin Jensen, Senior Fellow, Future War, Gaming, and Strategy, and International Security Program; Dr. Phyllis Schneck, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Northrop Grumman; David Simon, Global Co-Head of Cybersecurity & Data Privacy, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom; Suzanne Spaulding, Senior Adviser for Homeland Security, CSIS. 

HUMANITARIAN EXEMPTIONS TO SANCTIONS IN NORTH KOREA. 10/23, 12:30pm (EST), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: National Committee on North Korea. Speakers: Hazel Smith, Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Professor Emerita in International Security at Cranfield University, UK, Advisory fellow at the North Korea Economic Studies section of the Korea Development Institute (KDI) Seoul, Fellow, the Royal Society of Arts since 1996; Troy Stangarone, Senior Director, Fellow at the Korea Economic Institute (KEI). 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR ENERGY: AI & ENERGY TECHNOLOGY DISCOVERY. 10/23, Noon-1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Speaker: Rick L. Stevens, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing, Environment, and Life Sciences, Argonne National Laboratory. 

THE OUTLOOK FOR ISRAEL’S MILITARY CAMPAIGN AGAINST HAMAS. 10/23, 1:00-2:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Jon B. Alterman, senior vice president, Middle East Program Director, CSIS; Emily Harding, Deputy Director, International Security Program, CSIS; Norman T. Roule, Senior Adviser, Transnational Threats Project, CSIS. 

FUTURE OF THE U.S.-ISRAEL ALLIANCE AT 75. 10/23, 1:00-5:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Heritage Foundation. Speakers: Victoria Coates, Ph.D., Vice President, Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, The Heritage Foundation; Robert Greenway, Director, Center for National Defense, The Heritage Foundation; Eyal Hulata, Ph.D., Senior International Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Ellie Cohanim, Senior Fellow, Independent Women's Forum; Ludovic Hood, Senior Advisor, Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, U.S. Department of State; Kenneth L. Marcus, Founder and Chairman, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; Charles Asher Small, DPhil., Founding Director and President, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy; Amb. Ronald S. Lauder, President, World Jewish Congress. 

PUTIN’S “TURN TO THE EAST” IN THE XI JINPING ERA. 10/23, 2:00-3:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: co- editor Gilbert Rozman, Emeritus Musgrave Professor of Sociology, Princeton University; Editor-in-Chief, The Asan Forum; Gaye Christoffersen Co-Editor, Putin’s “Turn to the East” in the Xi Jinping Era. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/46wdM3C

THE FIRST 25 YEARS: UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM (USCIRF) ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND NEXT STEPS. 10/23, 3:00-5:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Speakers: Abraham Cooper, Chair, USCIRF; Frederick A. Davie, Vice Chair, USCIRF; Frank Wolf, Commissioner, USCIRF; Don Nickles, Former Senator; Joe Lieberman, Former Senator; Tom Lantos, Former Co-Chair, Human Rights Commission (TLHRC). 

CONGRESS AND BIDEN'S INITIAL SUCCESS IN COUNTERING CHINA'S CHALLENGES. 10/23, 3:30pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: GW Elliott School Research Program. Speaker: Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, Elliott School, George Washington University, Author Congress and China Policy: Past Episodic, Recent Enduring Influence. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3Fkqjep

DREAMS FOR A DECADE: INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR ABOLITIONISM AND THE END OF THE COLD WAR. 10/23, 4:00-5:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: Author Stephanie L. Freeman, Historian, US Department of State, Susan Colbourn, Associate Director of the Program in American Grand Strategy, Duke University; Svetlana Savranskaya, Member, History and Public Policy Program Advisory Board; Luc-André Brunet, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary International History, The Open University. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/45yuQVh

THE WAR OVER CHINESE TALENT IN THE U.S.' WITH DAVID ZWEIG. 10/23, 4:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: China and the World Program, Columbia-Harvard. Speaker: David Zweig (Ph.D., The University of Michigan, 1983), Professor Emeritus, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Taipei School of Economics and Political Science, National Tsinghua University, Taiwan. 

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S RUSSIA: AND THE USES OF WAR. 10/23, 4:30-5:30pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: AEI. Speakers: author Leon Aron, Senior Fellow, AEI; Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, AEI. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3PReily/

NATIONAL OIL COMPANIES AND THE ENERGY TRANSITION: LOOKING TO COP28 AND BEYOND. 10/23, 5:00-7:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia SIPA. Speakers: Erica Downs, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA; Tatiana Mitrova, Research Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA; Luisa Palacios, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA; Karen E. Young, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA. 

Monday Asia Events June 27, 2022

A CONVERSATION WITH FINLAND’S AMBASSADOR MIKKO HAUTALA. 6/27, Noon-1:00pm (EDT), ONLINE EVENT. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Mikko Hautala, Ambassador of the Republic of Finland to the United States; Peter Rough, Senior Fellow, Hudson. 

AN UNFLINCHING VOICE: USCIRF’S IMPACT ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 6/27, 1:00-2:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON. Sponsor: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USVIF). Speakers: Nury Turkel, Vice Chair, USCIRF; Sharon Kleinbaum, Commissioner, USCIRF; Stephen Schneck, Commissioner, USCIRF; Eric Ueland, Commissioner, USCIRF; Frank Wolf, Commissioner, USCIRF. 

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AFTER UKRAINE. 6/27, 2:30-4:30pm (EDT), ONLINE EVENT. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Henry Farrell, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Agora Institute Professor, International Affairs, Johns Hopkins University; Chris Miller, Visiting Fellow, Jeane Kirkpatrick, AEI; Abraham Newman, Director, Mortara Center for International Studies; Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government, Georgetown University; Emily S. Weinstein, Research Fellow, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University. Moderators: Joshua P. Meltzer, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development; Neena Shenai, Nonresident Fellow, AEI. 

INQUIRY ON CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN N. KOREAN DETENTION CENTERS. 6/27, 9:30-11:00am (EST), ONLINE AND IN PERSON. Sponsor: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Speakers Include: Navanethem Pillay, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Former President, Rwanda Tribunal, Former Judge, International Criminal Court; Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, President, Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statue, ICC, Former President, ICC; Wolfgang Schomburg, Former Judge, Rwanda and Former Yugoslavia Tribunals; Greg Kehoe, Former Co-Chair, IBA War Crimes Committee, Partner, Greenberg Traurig; David Tolbert, Former Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Former Yugoslavia Tribunal, Former Executive Director, International Center for Transitional Justice. 

GEN Z: STEWARDS OF DEMOCRACY. 6/27, 5:00pm (EDT), ONLINE EVENT. Sponsor: National Archives Foundation. Speakers: Sydney Kirages, American Battlefield Trust; Raina Melvin, First Americans Museum; Nina Keiko Nakao, Japanese American National Museum. /

Asia Events Monday April 25, 2022

FRANCE HAS VOTED: WHAT’S NEXT FOR EUROPEAN SECURITY AND TRANSATLANTIC COOPERATION? 4/25, 9:00-10:00am (EDT), ONLINE. Sponsor: German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Speakers: Sylvie Kauffmann, Editorial Director & Columnist, Le Monde; Pierre Morcos, Visiting Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Edgar Tam, Visiting Senior Fellow, GMF; Martin Quencez, Deputy Director, Research Fellow, Security & Defense program, GMF (Paris Office). 

WAR LEGACIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT. 4/25, 9:00-10:15am (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Stimson Center. Speakers: Sera Koulabdara, Legacies of War; Erin Lin, Department of Political Science, Ohio State University; Doug Weir, Research and Policy Director, Conflict and Environment Observatory; Claire Yunker, Executive Director of PeaceTrees Vietnam; Moderator: Charles Bailey, War Legacies Working Group. 

SUMMIT FOR DEMOCRACY’S YEAR OF ACTION: AN UPDATE FROM THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION. 4/25, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Society for International Development. Speakers: Rosarie Tucci, Director, Democracy, Rights and Governance Center, USAID; Patrick Quirk, Senior Director for Strategy, Research, and Center for Global Impact, International Republican Institute (IRI); Barbara Smith, Vice President, Peace Programs, Carter Center. 

ENSURING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT. 4/25, 10:00-11:30am (EDT), ONLINE. Sponsor: Peace and Security, Georgetown Institute For Women. Speakers: The Honorable Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations; Wai Wai Nu, Founder, Director, Women’s Peace Network, Myanmar; Oleksandra Matviychuk, Human Rights Activist, Chair, Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine; Arsalan Suleman, Former Acting U.S. Special Envoy, Organization of Islamic Cooperation; Dr. Robert Nagel, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security; Amb. Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. 

THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET EMPIRE AND THE SEEDS OF THE NEW EUROPEAN WAR. 4/25, Noon-1:00pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Starr Forum, MIT. Speaker: Vladislav Zubok, Professor of International History, LSE; Moderators: Carol Saivetz, Senior Advisor, Security Studies Program, MIT; Elizabeth Wood, Professor of history, MIT. 

THE VORTEX: A TRUE STORY OF HISTORY'S DEADLIEST STORM, AN UNSPEAKABLE WAR, AND LIBERATION. 4/25, Noon-1:30pm (EDT), IN-PERSON & ZOOM WEBINAR, Washington, DC. Sponsor: George Washington University (GW). Speakers: Marcus D. King, John O. Rankin Associate Professor of International Affairs, Director, Master of Arts in International Affairs Program, ESIA, GW; Deepa Ollapally, Research Professor of International Affairs, Associate Director, Sigur Center, GW. 

PROSPECTS FOR THE POST-COVID ASIAN ECONOMY WITH ADB CHIEF ECONOMIST. 4/25, 12:30-1:30pm (EDT), IN-PERSON, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Reischauer Center. Speaker: Dr. Albert Park, Chief Economist, Asian Development Bank (ADB); Moderator: Kent E. Calder, Director, Edwin O. Reischauer Center, East Asian Studies. 

INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 2022 ANNUAL REPORT: KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 4/25, 2:00-3:00pm (EDT), IN-PERSON, Washington, DC. Sponsor: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Speakers: Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Nadine Maenza, Chair, USCIRF; Nury Turkel, Vice Chair, USCIRF. 

GREAT WALL OF STEEL: CHINA'S GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO SUPPRESS THE UYGHURS. 4/25, 2:00-3:30pm (EDT), WEBCAST. Sponsor: Kissinger Institute on China and the United States (KICUS). Speakers: Bradley Jardine, Schwarzman Scholar, Schwarzman Scholar, Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Research Consultant, Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs; Moderator: Robert Daly, Director, KICUS. 

CITIES FORTIFYING DEMOCRACY: A CONVERSATION WITH THE MAYOR OF WARSAW. 4/25, 2:30-3:15pm (EDT), ONLINE. Sponsor: German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Speakers: Heather A. Conley, President, GMF; Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor, City of Warsaw, Poland; Moderator: Laura Thornton, Director, Alliance for Securing Democracy, GMF. 

ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE (AMR) AS A GLOBAL SECURITY THREAT: DESTABILIZING FOOD SYSTEMS AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES. 4/25, 3:00-4:00pm (EDT), LIVESTREAM & IN-PERSON, Washington, DC. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Rasmus Prehn, Minister, Danish Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries; Rod Schoonover, Head, Ecological Security Group, Council On Strategic Risks; Junxia Song, AMR Focal Point and Senior Animal Health Officer, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization; Moderator: Caitlin Welsh, Director, Global Food Security Program. 

UKRAINIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY AND RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE FAILURE. 4/25, 5:00-6:00pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics. Speaker: Ethan S. Burger, IWP Cyber Intelligence Instructor, International Attorney. 

Monday Asia Events, June 14, 2021

Flag Day in the U.S.

The Facts. In 2007, members of the Japanese rightwing published in the Washington Post a full page advertorial "The Facts" condemning the Comfort Women--sex slaves for Imperial Japan's military and colonial administrators--as liars and well-paid prostitutes. The ad was part of an effort to convince members of the House of Representatives to reject a House resolution, H.Res. 121, that asked Japan to unequivocally apologize to Imperial Japan's Comfort Women victims. The Comfort Women system was a state initiated, organized, and managed form of human trafficking. Two of Prime Minister Suga's current Cabinet advisers signed this denialist document: Manabu Sakai (坂井学) and Minoru Kihara (木原稔)

BRUSSELS FORUM - DAY 1. 6/14, 4:00am-2:00pm (EDT), LIVESTREAM. Sponsor: German Marshall Fund. Speakers include: Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General, NATO; Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, Canada; Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Germany; Justyna Gotkowska, Program Coordinator, Regional Security Program, Center for Eastern Studies; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President, Turkey; Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister, Greece; Tacan Ildem, Former Assistant Secretary General, Public Diplomacy, NATO; Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA), U.S. House of Representatives; Peter Dutton, Minister of Defence, Australia; Noah Barkin, Senior Visiting Fellow, Asia Program, German Marshall Fund; Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), U.S. Senate; Tanvi Madan, Senior Fellow, Project on International Order and Strategy, Foreign Policy Program, Director, The India Project, Brookings; Janka Oertel, Director, Asia Program, European Council on Foreign Relations; Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), U.S. House of Representatives; Alexander de Croo, Prime Minister, Belgium. 

CHINA’S DIGITAL SILK ROAD: INTEGRATION INTO NATIONAL IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND WIDER IMPLICATIONS FOR WESTERN DEFENCE INDUSTRIES. 6/14, 9:00am (EDT), ZOOM. Sponsor: International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Speakers: Alexander Neill, Executive Director, Alex Neill Consulting; Camille Lons, Research Associate, IISS-Middle East Office, Bahrain; Nawafel Shehab, Research Assistant, IISS-Middle East Office, Bahrain; Scott Malcomson, Director of Special Projects, Strategic Insight Group; Meia Nouwens, Senior Fellow, Chinese Defense Policy and Modernisation, IISS; Dr. Bastian Giegerich, Director of Defence and Military Analysis, IISS. 

THE ROLE OF NATURAL GAS IN A DECARBONIZED WORLD – REGIONAL INSIGHTS. 6/14, 9:00am (EDT), ZOOM PANEL. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Secretary Ernest Moniz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Futures Initiative; Melanie Kenderdine, Principal, Energy Futures Initiative; Astha Gupta, Asia EDGE Fellow, National Bureau of Asian Research; Anouk Honoré, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Ken Koyama, Chief Economist and Managing Director, Institute for Energy Economics, Japan; Leila Ben Ali, Chief Economist, International Energy Forum; Alain Ebobissé, Chief Executive Officer, Africa50; Ruslan Stefanov, Program Director and Chief Economist, Center for the Study of Democracy; Lisa Viscidi, Director, Energy, Climate Change & Extractive Industries Program, Inter-American Dialogue; Moderators: David Goldwyn, Chairman, Energy Advisory Group, Atlantic Council; Robert Stoner, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, MIT Energy Initiative.

TAIWAN - GEOPOLITICAL FLASHPOINT: FACTS V HYPERBOLE. 6/14, 9:30am (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: US-China Series. Speakers: Maggie Lewis, Seton Hall University; Bonnie Glaser, German Marshall Fund of the United States. 

RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION DURING CRISES: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. 6/14, Noon-1:15pm (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Speakers: Mahan Mirza, Executive Director, Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, University of Notre Dame; Sabrina Dent, Senior Faith Advisor, Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Susan Hayward, Visiting Fellow, Religion in Public Life, Harvard Divinity School; Knox Thames, Senior Fellow, Institute of Global Engagement; Moderator: Jason Klocek, Senior Researcher, USIP. 

WHAT THE US-JAPAN ALLIANCE HOPES TO SEE EUROPE CONTRIBUTE TO THE INDO-PACIFIC. 6/14, 7:00-8:00pm (JST), WEBINAR. Sponsors: Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS); Jeunes IHEDN; Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), Temple University Japan Campus. Speakers: Tsuneo Watanabe, Senior Research Fellow, Sasakawa Peace Foundation; Kevin Maher, Senior Advisor, NMV Consulting, LLC; Moderators: John Bradford, Executive Director, YCAPS; Stephen Nagy, Director for Policy Research, YCAPS. 

WE HEREBY REFUSE: JAPANESE AMERICAN RESISTANCE TO WARTIME INCARCERATION. 6/14, 9:00pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsors: Elliott Bay Book Company; Seattle Public Library; Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience; Densho. Speakers: Author, Frank Abe, Writer; Author, Tamiko Nimura, Writer; Ross Ishikawa, Cartoonist, and Animator; Tom Ikeda, Executive Director, Densho. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3x93rsj

JAPAN IN THE AGE OF SINO-AMERICAN CONFRONTATION. 6/14, 9:30pm (EDT). WEBINAR. Sponsors: Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), Temple University Japan (TUJ); Center for Rule-making Strategies (CRS), Tama University. Speakers: Shihoko Goto, Deputy Director for Geoeconomics, Asia Program, Wilson Center; Tobias Harris, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Moderator: Robert Dujarric, Co-Director, ICAS, TUJ. 

COMPARATIVE CONNECTIONS ROUNDTABLE. 6/14, 8:00-9:30pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Pacific Forum. Speakers: Dr. Catherine Dalpino, Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University; Dr. Chin-Hao Huang, Assistant Professor, Yale-NUS College; Dr. Robert Sutter, Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University. 

OCEANS OF OPPORTUNITY: SOUTHEAST ASIA’S SHARED MARITIME CHALLENGES, SESSION TWO. 6/14, 8:00-10:30pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsors: CSIS; University of the Philippines. Speakers: Deo Onda, Deputy Director, Marine Science Institute, University Philippines; Sandra Whitehouse, Founding Member, Ocean Collective; Antonio Carpio, Former Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the Philippines; Tara Davenport, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore; Xiao Recio-Blanco, Director, Ocean Program, Environmental Law Institute; Jay Batongbacal, Director, Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, University of the Philippines. Gregory B. Poling, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia, Director, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, CSIS; Whitley Saumweber, Director, Stephenson Ocean Security Project, and Senior Associate (Non-Resident), Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, CSIS.

Asia Monday Events, December 7, 2020

79th Anniversary of Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor

THE PLASTIC FIRST MILE--CLOSING THE LOOP ON PLASTIC WASTE IN ASIA. 12/7, 8:00–9:15am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Asia Program, Wilson. Speakers: Marcy Trent Long, Founder, Sustainable Asia; Sherry Lu, Program Officer, Plastic Free China; Tiza Mafira, Co-founder & Executive Director, Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Movement (Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik); Hiroaki Odachi, Plastic Campaigner, Greenpeace Japan. Moderator: Jennifer L. Turner, Director, China Environment Forum & Manager, Global Choke Point Initiative. 

THE U.S.-JAPAN ALLIANCE IN 2020: AN EQUAL ALLIANCE WITH A GLOBAL AGENDA. 7/7, 8:00-9:30am (EST), ZOOM. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Richard L. Armitage, Armitage International; Counselor, CSIS; Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University; Trustee, CSIS; Michael J. Green, Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, CSIS; Kara L. Bue, Founding Partner, Armitage International; Victor Cha, Senior Adviser and Korea Chair, CSIS; Zack Cooper, AEI; Matthew P. Goodman, Senior Vice President for Economics and Simon Chair in Political Economy, CSIS; Robert A. Manning, Resident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council; Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies, Council on Foreign Relations. 

INSTRUMENTS OF INFLUENCE? CHINESE FINANCING IN SOUTH ASIA. 12/7, 8:30-10:00am (EST), ZOOM. Sponsor: Stimson. Speakers: Atif Ahmad, Researcher; Avasna Pandey, Program Manager, Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal; Nilanthi Samaranayake, Strategy and Policy Analysis Director, Center for New American Security; Akriti Vasudeva, Editor-at-Large, South Asian Voices; Uzair Younus, Engagement and Strategy Manager, Dhamiri.

THE POLITICS OF REFORM IN KAZAKHSTAN. 12/7, 9:30-10:30am (EST) ONLINE. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Randi Levinas, Executive Vice Vyacheslav Abramov, Kazakhstani journalist, editor, and the founder of Vlast.kz, an independent, analytical online magazine covering politics, economy, and social issues; Almas Chukin is managing partner of Visor Kazakhstan, one of the largest private equity investment companies in Central Asia; Meruert Makhmutova is the director and founder of the Public Policy Research Center (PPRC) and co-founder of the Association of Economists of Kazakhstan; Nargis Kassenova is a senior fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. She holds a PhD in International Cooperation Studies from Nagoya University (Japan); Paul Stronski is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program, where his research focuses on the relationship between Russia and neighboring countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. 

DOES CHINESE FOREIGN BEHAVIOR WARRANT SUSTAINED US COUNTERMEASURES? 12/7, 10:30-11:30am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University. Speaker: author Robert G. Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs at Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Release of Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy of an Emerging Global Force, 5th edition. PURCHASE BOOK 

HOW TO RESPOND TO CHINA’S CARROTS AND STICKS?: PROSPECTS OF A TRANSATLANTIC RESPONSE TO CHINESE ECONOMIC COERCION. 12/7, 10:00-11:00am (EST) ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS). Speakers: Maximilian Ernst, DAAD/AICGS Research Fellow; PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Institute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

RETHINKING RELIGION AND U.S. DIPLOMACY 12/7, 2:00-3:00pm (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and its Global Human Development Program. Speakers: Shaun Casey, director, Berkley Center; Jessica Goudeau, author of After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America (2020); Emily Crane Linn (G'22) previously served as executive director of a refugee resettlement agency, Canopy of Northwest Arkansas based in Fayetteville, Arkansas; Katherine Marshall, senior fellow, Berkley Center.

RETHINKING ISOLATIONISM. 12/7, 4:00-6:00pm (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). Speakers: author Charles Kupchan, Professor, Georgetown University, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Stefano Guzzini, Professor, Uppsala University, Senior Researcher, DIIS; Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, Senior Researcher, DIIS; Vibeke Schou Tjalve, Senior Researcher, DIIS. PURCHASE BOOK

U.S.-ROK COOPERATION BETWEEN THE INDO-PACIFIC STRATEGY AND THE NEW SOUTH POLICY. 12/7, 10:00-11:00am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Institute for Korean Studies, George Washington University. Speaker: Marc Knapper, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan. Moderator: Jisoo M. Kim, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Director of Institute for Korean Studies at GW, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Korean Studies.

THE ROLE OF AI AND BIG DATA IN MILITARY OPERATIONS: A DISCUSSION WITH GENERAL RICHARD D. CLARKE AND Dr. RICHARD SHULTZ. 12/7, Noon (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Gen. Richard D. Clarke, Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command; Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Hudson Institute; Dr. Richard H. Shultz, Jr., Lee E. Dirks Professor of International Politics, Director of the International Security Studies Program, Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Dr. Nadia Schadlow, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute. 

THE PRIMACY OF SANCTIONS: AN ASSESSMENT OF U.S. SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA. 12/7, 1:00-2:30pm (EST), WEBCAST. Sponsor: Kennan Institute, Wilson Center. Speakers: Thomas Pickering, Vice Chairman of Hills and Company, Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and the UN; Daniel Ahn, Global Fellow, Managing Director, Chief U.S. Economist, Head of Macroeconomic Strategy, BNP Paribas; Randi Levinas, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, U.S.-Russia Business Council; MODERATOR: William E. Pomeranz, Deputy Director, Kennan Institute. 

Chinese Repression of Muslims in Xinjiang Echoes Across Central Asia

By: Paul Goble

First Published by Eurasia Daily Monitor, Jamestown Foundation, November 21, 2019

Beijing’s efforts to expand its power in Central Asia by investment and cooperation with the governments in the region (see China Brief, November 19, 2019; see EDM, April 4, 2019, January 30, 2018, August 2, 2016) are currently being undercut by the reactions of Central Asian populations to China’s repression of their co-ethnics and fellow Muslims in Xinjiang. Central Asians know far more about Chinese actions there than many might expect for three reasons: 1) the flight of such people from China to Central Asia, 2) the use of the Internet by Uyghurs and other activists to tell the world and particularly Central Asia about their plight, and 3) the exploitation of this information by opposition politicians in Central Asian countries.

Many members of the Central Asian nationalities currently living in Xinjiang have ancestors who escaped there after the Soviets crushed the Basmachi movement (Turkestan Liberation Organization) in the 1920s and 1930s. But over the past several months, they have been fleeing western China in increasing numbers and, upon arrival to their ancestral homelands, telling their co-ethnics about the concentration camps that the Chinese authorities have confined them to in the hopes of “re-educating” them away from Islam and national traditions and toward Beijing’s preferred values. The massive scale of this flight was highlighted in a recent report issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It states that during the first nine months of 2019, 4,500 ethnic Kazakhs from China resettled in Kazakhstan with the right of permanent residence as “oralmans,” the name Nur-Sultan has used for co-ethnic returnees (Centralasian.org, November 17; Fergana.agency, September 19).

Their personal accounts of mistreatment at the hands of the Chinese have inflamed Kazakhstani opinion, which had already been growing more hostile to Beijing because of Uyghur use of the Internet to document Chinese repression. In a recent issue of the Central Asian Survey, Rachel Harris of London’s SOAS and independent scholar Aziz Isa report on the way this works in an article entitled “Islam by Smartphone: Reading the Islamic Revival on WeChat.” Because this channel has proven so influential in Central Asia, and especially in Kazakhstan, it has attracted enormous attention there by independent media there and, thus, had a dramatic effect on the populations (Fergana.agency, March 6).

This development appears to have contributed in a significant way to the spread of anti-Chinese protests in Kazakhstan this fall. Those demonstrations, some of the largest in that country’s history, have taken place in almost all major cities and have put strains on relations between Kazakhstan and China. To be sure, the reports from Xinjiang and first-person accounts by those who fled that Chinese region are not the only cause. Many Central Asians have long resented the fact that the Chinese have often behaved extremely arrogantly in their dealings with the governments in the region, seemingly exploiting them in an openly neo-colonial way, and not providing these countries with the kind of support (relative to the Russian Federation and other outside powers) they had hoped China’s involvement would create (see EDM, September 10).

Anti-Chinese attitudes, linked to the Xinjiang case and otherwise, are not confined to Kazakhstan but exist, and appear to be intensifying, in all the countries of the region, with Chinese involvement in their economies and politics and Chinese mistreatment of their co-ethnics in Xinjiang being the leading causes. According to Bishkek-based journalist Pavel Dyatlentko, anti-Chinese attitudes have been on the rise throughout Central Asia; and whenever they have led to protests, Beijing reacted quickly and punitively, shutting consulates and suspending investment projects—actions that are only making the situation worse (Ia-centr.ru, September 11).

In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, he says, some Kyrgyz and Tajiks have expressed alarm at the massive debts to China that Bishkek and Dushanbe have run up, a development that many fear Beijing will exploit to gain political dominance. Elsewhere, the fact that Chinese investments have sparked Chinese immigration rather than created jobs for Central Asians is the bigger problem. Central Asians resent the appearance of “China towns” in their countries just as much as some in Russia’s Far East do (Vzglyad, August 15, 2018). And protests against the Chinese presence and Chinese repression have become part of the domestic political struggle in many of these countries.

According to Dyatlenko, as China has expanded its presence with the full cooperation of the regimes in power, opposition politicians have begun to play on this theme, recognizing that the Central Asian populations are not on the same page as their governments, as far as China is concerned. Given that China is likely to continue to expand its presence, further irritating local publics, the temptation of opposition groups to exploit such anger will only grow. If that happens—and the Bishkek commentator argues it will unless alternative sources of foreign investment appear—the anti-Chinese demonstrations that have taken place to date will be only the prelude to a situation that could easily spiral out of control, ethnicizing politics in these countries still further.

Should that occur, the consequences of the impact of China’s actions in Xinjiang and its moves to expand its position in Central Asia could transform the regional republics still further, sparking more Russian flight and even becoming another source of discord between Moscow and Beijing. The timing of such a cooling of relations would be particularly inauspicious for the Kremlin considering President Vladimir Putin’s current efforts to both promote a Russian-Chinese alliance against the United States as well as to recover Russia’s influence in Central Asia.

Religion in Japanese Politics

Ask your average Japanese if he or she is religious, they will say no. Observe how they live their day and note the organizations they join, and your answer is different. Religious organizations and beliefs have considerable influence on Japanese politics. This is especially true of conservative nationalist groups that seek the restoration of an Emperor-focused government and society. On March 5, 2019, at Harvard University, Associate Professor of Asian Religions, North Carolina State University Levi McLaughlin discussed this topic. His presentation is only accessible via the audio above. He is the author of Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan. He will speak on Friday, April 12th from 12:30-2:00pm at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Monday in Washington, December 10, 2018

BRINGING PUBLIC PERSPECTIVES INTO ENERGY PROJECTS. 8:30-10:30am. Sponsor: Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, ASU. Speaker: Kirk Jalbert, assistant professor, Arizona State University, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, joint appointment with School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering.

BRIDGING THE DATA-POLICY GAP ON COUNTERTERRORISM. 10:30am-12:30pm. Sponsors: US Institute of Peace (USIP); Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). Speakers: Richmond Blake, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Mercy Corps; Michelle Breslauer, Director, Americas Program, IEP; Leanne Erdberg, Director Countering Violent Extremism, USIP; Elizabeth (Liz) Hume, Vice President, Acting CEO, Alliance for Peacebuilding; Erin Miller, Global Terrorism Database Manager, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

MORAL CASE FOR A FREE ECONOMY. 11:00am-Noon. Sponsor: Heritage. Speakers: Robert Sirico, Reverend, President, Acton Institute; David R. Burton, Senior Fellow, Economic Policy, Heritage.

NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER: THE INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT OF 1998. 11:45am-1:30pm. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Samuel Brownback, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom; Frank R. Wolf, Former U.S. Representative (R-VA) and primary sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998; Thomas L. Gallagher, President and CEO, Religion News Foundation; Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Religious Freedom; Hudson Institute and Co-Chair, Working Group on Christians and Religious Pluralism in the Middle East; Kristina Arriaga, Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow, Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute and Distinguished Senior Fellow, Institute for the Study of Religion, Baylor University; Hillel Fradkin, Senior Fellow and Director, Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World, Hudson Institute and founder and co-editor of Current Trends in Islamist Ideology; Elizabeth Prodromou; Co-chair, Working Group on Christians & Religious Pluralism in the Middle East, Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute and Associate Professor, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University; Erin Rodewald, Co-author, 20th Anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act: A Retrospective; Lou Ann Sabatier, Co-Author, 20th Anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act: A Retrospective.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR THE PEACE CORPS. 1:00-2:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Dr. Jody K. Olsen, Director, Peace Corps; Mark L. Schneider, Former Director, Peace Corps, Senior Adviser, Americas Program, Human Rights Initiative, CSIS.

DIVERSE BOOTS ON THE GROUND: EU AND NATO EFFECTIVENESS. 3:30-5:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: German Marshall Fund (GMF); Women International Security (WIIS); Women in Public Service Project (WPSP), Wilson Center. Speakers: Laura Groenendaal, Europe Program, GMF Brussels; Ellen Haring, Senior Fellow, WIIS, Director Combat Integration Initiative Project; Kathleen Hicks, Senior Vice President, Henry A. Kissinger Chair, and Director of the International Security Program, CSIS; Dr. Gale A. Mattox, Global Fellow, Professor of Political Science, U.S. Naval Academy; Moderator: Gwen K. Young, Director, Women in Public Service Project, Wilson Center.

LANTOS RULE OF LAW LECTURE WITH HAROLD HONGJU KOH. 4:30-6:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speakers: Harold Hongju Koh, Professor of International Law, Yale Law School; Eliot Cohen, Vice Dean for Education and Academic Affairs, Professor of Strategic Studies, SAIS, Johns Hopkins; moderator, Katrina Lantos Swett, President, Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

HOW A MISGUIDED FEDERAL RESERVE EXPERIMENT DEEPENED AND PROLONGED THE GREAT RECESSION. 5:00-6:15pm. Sponsor: AEI. Speakers: Paul H. Kupiec, Former Associate Director, Division of Insurance and Research, FDIC, Resident Scholar, AEI; George Selgin, Senior Fellow, Director, Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, Cato, Professor of Economics, University of Georgia; David Beckworth, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University; Bill Nelson, Executive Vice President, Chief Economist, Bank Policy Institute.

Monday in Washington, September 24, 2018

SCIENTIFIC, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE AMAZON. 9/24, 9:00am-5:00pm. Sponsors: Environmental Change and Security Program, Wilson Center; Brazil Institute, Wilson Center; São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPSEP); Alcoa Foundation. Speakers: Paulo Sotero, Director, Brazil Institute; Paulo Artaxo, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP); Rita Mesquita, Senior Researcher, National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA); Thomas Lovejoy, UN Foundation and George Mason University; Douglas Morton, Earth Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Celso von Randow, Researcher, National Institute for Space Research (INPE); Gustavo Fonseca, Director of Programs, Global Environment Facility; José Marengo, Senior Researcher, National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEM); Rita Mesquita, Senior Researcher, National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA); Fábio Abdala, Alcoa Foundation.

ADDRESSING CHALLENGES IN THE MARITIME COMMONS. 9/24, 9:00-10:30am. Sponsor: National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). Speakers include: Admiral Eduardo Bacellar Leal Ferreira, Commander of the Navy, Brazilian Navy; Vice Admiral Michael Noonan, Chief of Navy, Royal Australian Navy; Admiral Tomohisa Takei, 32nd Chief on Staff, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Distinguished International Fellow, U.S. Naval War College. Moderator: Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert (ret.), 30th Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Navy, Shali Chair in National Security Studies, NBR.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND PEACE IN SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST ASIA. 9/24, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsors: Hudson and Heritage. Speakers: Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester (1994-2009) and President of Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy & Dialogue; Husain Haqqani, Senior Fellow and Director for South and Central Asia, Hudson Institute; Emilie Kao, Director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center.
INDO-PACIFIC AND REGIONAL TRENDS: TOWARDS CONNECTIVITY OR CONFLICT? 9/24, 12:30-1:45pm. Sponsor: Sigur Center, GW. Speakers: Dr. Mike Mochizuki, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GW; Dr. Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, GW; Dr. Jagannath Panda, Research Fellow and Coordinator of the East Asia Centre at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi; Moderator: Dr. Deepa M. Ollapally, Director of the Rising Powers Initiative, GW.

AGENDA OF THE FINANCIAL STABILITY BOARD. 9/24, 12:45-1:45pm. Sponsor: Peterson Institute (PIIE). Speaker: Klaas Knot, President, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), Governing Council, European Central Bank. Webcast Only

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BORROWED TIME: TWO CENTURIES OF BOOMS, BUSTS, AND BAILOUTS AT CITI. 9/24, 4:00pm. Sponsor: Cato. Speakers: Author, James Freeman, Assistant Editor, Editorial Page, Wall Street Journal; Author, Vern McKinley, Visiting Scholar, The George Washington University Law School; Christy Ford Chapin, Associate Professor, University of Maryland; Moderator: George Selgin, Director, Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives.

NORTH KOREAN MILITARY PROLIFERATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA. 9/24, 4:30-5:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics. Speaker: Author, Dr. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., President, International Council on Korean Studies.

THE GENDER GAP IN 2018: SUPPORTING WOMEN IN THE INTERNATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNITY. 9/24, 6:00-7:30pm. Sponsors: Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Women In Defense (WID), Women's Foreign Policy Group (WFPG), Women's Foreign Policy Network (WFPN), and Women In International Security (WIIS) Global, Women in International Security (WIIS-DC). Speakers: Jenna Ben-Yehuda, Women’s Foreign Policy Network; Tamara Cofman Wittes, Leadership Council on Women in National Security; Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, Women In International Security; Kim Kahnhauser Freeman, Women’s Foreign Policy Group; Women in Defense Representative (TBD); Moderator: Laura Holgate (Nuclear Threat Initiative). 

Monday in Washington, February 12, 2018

GEOSTRATEGIC FLASHPOINT: THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN. 2/12, 9:00-10:00am. Sponsor: Europe Program & Middle East Program, CSIS. Speakers: Adm. James G. Foggo, III, Commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Africa; Heather A. Conley,Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic; Director, Europe Program, CSIS; Jon B. Alterman, Senior Vice President, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, Director, Middle East Program, CSIS.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE. 2/12, 10:00am-Noon. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy David Trachtenberg, Jim Miller, under secretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration; Madelyn Creedon, principal deputy administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration during the Obama administration; James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment; and Robert Einhorn of Brookings.

RESPONDING TO THE ROHINGYA CRISIS WITH ETHICAL LEADERSHIP. 2/12, 11:30am-1:00pm. Sponsor: Elliott School, GWU. Speakers: Dr. Wakar, Professor, Pennsylvania State University, Director General, Arakan Rohingya Union, Founding Chairman, Burmese Rohingya Association North America; Amb. Derek Mitchell, CEO, Shwe Strategies LLC, Senior Advisor, Albright Stonebridge Group, US Institute of Peace. Moderator: Dr. Christina Fink, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, Elliott School, GWU. 

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ELECTION SECURITY IN 50 STATES: DEFENDING AMERICA’S ELECTIONS. 2/12, 11:30am-1:15pm. Sponsor: Center for American Progress. Speakers include: Neera Tanden, President & CEO, Center for American Progress ; Jeh Johnson, Former US Secretary of Homeland Security ; Judd Choate, Director of Elections, State of Colorado; Edgardo Cortes, Former Commissioner of Elections, Commonwealth of Virginia. Moderators: Neera Tanden, President & CEO, Center for American Progress; Winnie Stachelberg, Executive Vice President, External Affairs, Center for American Progress.

IRAN’S POLITICAL FUTURE. 2/12, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Future of Iran Initiative, Atlantic Council. Speakers: Nazila Fathi, Journalist, Author, The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran; Suzanne Maloney, Deputy Director, Foreign Policy Program, Brookings; Alireza Nader, Senior International Policy Analyst, RAND Corporation. Moderator: Barbara Slavin, Director, Future of Iran Initiative, Atlantic Council.

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RELIGION, SECULARISM AND DEMOCRACY IN DUTERTE'S PHILIPPINES. 2/12, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Berkley Center, Georgetown University. Speakers: David Buckley, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Paul Weber Endowed Chair in Politics, Science & Religion, University of Louisville, Author, Faithful to Secularism: The Religious Politics of Democracy in Ireland, Senegal and the Philippines; Shaun Casey, Director, Berkley Center, Professor of the Practice, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Senior Fellow, Luce Project on Religion and Its Publics, University of Virginia.

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REMAPPING IR: PROTEAN POWER: EXPLORING THE UNCERTAIN AND UNEXPECTED IN WORLD POLITICS. 2/12, 12:30-1:30pm. Sponsor: Mortara Center for International Studies, Walsh School of Foreign Services, Georgetown University. Speakers: Peter Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter Professor of International Studies, Cornell University, Former President, American Political Science Association; Lucia Seybert, Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University.

U.S.-PAKISTAN RELATIONS AT A TURNING POINT: WHAT’S NEXT? 2/12, 2:30-4:00pm. Sponsor: Asia Center, US Institute of Peace (USIP). Speakers: Tanvi Madan, Director, India Project, Brookings; Amb. Richard Olson, Former Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; David Sedney, Senior Associate, International Security Program, CSIS; Moeed Yusuf, Associate Vice President, USIP. Moderator: Andrew Wilder, Vice President, USIP.

EUROPE'S CHALLENGE OF RADICALIZATION-VULNERABLE YOUTH AND TECHNIQUES OF COUNTER-TERRORISM. 2/12, 4:30-6:30pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. Speaker: Hon. Koen Geens Louran, Minister of Justice of Belgium.

CRYPTOCURRENCIESAND BLOCKCHAIN: TECHNO-GOLD OR FOOL’S GOLD? 2/12, 5:00-6:30pm. Sponsor: American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Speakers: Jerry Dwyer, Professor, BB&T Scholar, Clemson University; Bert Ely, Principal, Ely & Company Inc., Adjunct Scholar, Cato; Paul H. Kupiec, Resident Scholar, AEI; Hadley Stern, Senior Vice President, Fidelity Investments. Moderator: Alex J. Pollock, Distinguished Senior Fellow, R Street Institute.

#CATODIGITAL — BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING:FISA SECTION 702 AND THE MODERN SURVEILLANCE STATE. 2/12, 6:00-7:00pm. Sponsor: Cato. Speakers: Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI); Patrick G. Eddington, Policy Analyst, Homeland Security and Civil Liberties, Cato, Former Military Imagery Analyst, National Photographic Interpretation Center, CIA. Moderator: Kat Murti, Senior Digital Outreach Manager, Cato.

WHAT ABOUT FRANCE, EUROPE, AND TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS? 2/12, 6:30-8:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. Speaker: Frédéric Bozo, Professor, Sorbonne Nouvelle, University of Paris III. Moderator: John L. Harper, Kenneth H. Keller Professor, American Foreign Policy, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University.