Tuesday, January 25, 2011

This week in Washington

DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS IN NORTHEAST ASIA. 1/26, 3:30-5:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: Jocelyn Finlay, Harvard University; Ito Peng, University of Toronto; Richard Cincotta, Stimson Center.

CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING CHINA'S CURRENCY POLICY. 1/27, 12:30- 2:00pm, Brown Bag Lunch, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Women in International Trade. Speakers: Paul Magnusson, Senior Analyst for Economic-Trade Issues, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission; Linda Menghetti, Vice President, Emergency Committee for American Trade. 

CHINA’S ACTIVE DEFENSE STRATEGY AND ITS REGIONAL IMPACTS. 1/27, 8:50am-2:30pm, Lunch, Washington, DC. Sponsor: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Speakers: Rep. Robert J. Wittman (R-VA); Roger Cliff, Senior Political Scientist, The RAND Corporation; Oriana Skylar Mastro, Doctoral Candidate, Princeton University; Cortez Cooper, Senior International Policy Analyst, The RAND Corporation; Lt Gen (Ret.) David A. Deptula, President and CEO, The Deptula Group; Martin C. Libicki, Senior Management Scientist, The RAND Corporation; Dean Cheng, Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation; Balbina Hwang, Visiting Professor, Georgetown University; Jim Thomas, Vice President for Studies, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; Stacy Pedrozo, Military Fellow (U.S. Navy), Council on Foreign Relations.

BUILDING BETTER: GENDER & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA.1/27, Luncheon , Noon-2:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Asia Society Washington Center. Speakers: UNDP’s annual Human Development Report (HDR) HDR lead author Jeni Klugman, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director for Asia & the Pacific Ajay Chibber World Bank Executive Director for Germany Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven.

ECFA AND THE FUTURE OF US AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN TAIWAN. 1/31, 9:30-10:30am, Washington, DC. Sponsor: AEI. Speakers: Paul Wolfowitz, AEI; Christina Liu, Council for Economic Planning and Development, Taiwan Executive Yuan.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

A look ahead

Every year, APP's staff, fellows, and interns waste some time thinking about the future. We take out the I-Ching sticks, shake the the 8-ball, and work ourselves into a trance trying to make sense out of what Joe Nye says. The result is our (in)famous In/Out list for the Asia policy crowd. Below we share some of our predictions with you. APP members have already received the full list. And of course we always welcome comments, input, and bribes to include your name or organization.
OUT   IN
G-2 G-20
Malaysia Indoneisa
ASEAN India
CSIS CNAS
TARP TPP
Holocaust Victims POWs of Japan
Pirates Chinese Navy
Kan Kan't
Hu Who Next
Currency War Competitiveness
Henoko Bay Cam Ranh Bay
Exports  Domestic demand
Peaceful Rise Sovereignty
Smart Power Isolationism
Futenma Clark Air Base
ROKS Cheonan USS George Washington
AKB-48 GNP-48%
Dokdo Kurils
Hapless Feckless
Geopolitical forecasts Paul the Dead Octopus
Crazy Nork Leader Crazy Nork Leader

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Free Trade

DEMYSTIFYING FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AMERICANS, JAPANESE AND CHINESE EFFORTS TO SHAPE THE FUTURE OF FREE TRADE. 1/13. 4:30-6:00pm,Washington, DC. Sponsor: Reischauer Center, Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Speaker: Arthur Lord, adjunct fellow of the SAIS Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies. Read his paper HERE.

LUNCH WITH CONGRESSMAN KEVIN BRADY, NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE TRADE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS. 1/18, 12:30-2:00pm, Lunch, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Women in International Trade (WIIT). Speaker: Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX).

Two important speeches

Building Cooperation in the US–China Military-to-Military Relationship, Speech by Michael Schiffer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, United States Department of Defense, IISS, 1/6/11.
The framework that we have proposed is designed to build a military-to-military relationship that is sustained and reliable, that is continuous rather than intermittent, and that promotes exchanges at all levels and across all issues, including high-level visits, such as Secretary Gates' trip next week. It seeks to establish professional and functional exchanges including those at the junior officer and mid-career level; and it gives paramount importance to operational safety and confidence-building activities, such as through the MMCA. It also sees as critical the task of conducting substantive and strategic level discussions.

Opening a New Horizon in the Asia Pacific By H.E. Mr. Seiji Maehara, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 6, 2011.

Last but not the least, what is most crucial for an alliance is mutual trust. In the four months since assuming office as foreign minister last September, I have built a relationship of trust with Secretary Clinton as ones in charge of diplomacy by, for example, having four foreign ministers' meetings including the one scheduled today. I am convinced that, by further deepening the Japan-US alliance bolstered by mutual trust, we surely will be able to overcome any challenges that will confront the Asia Pacific region.

Japan and the United States built the most important alliance in the world after the devastating World War II. As most people including I were [sic] born after the war, there is a tendency today to take the alliance for granted. However, when I put my hands together in prayer to console the spirits of both Japanese and American soldiers who lost their lives in Iwo Jima, the site of a hard-fought battle of the unfortunate war, and when I reflect on the tragic experiences of the prisoners of war (POW) who endured severe ordeal, I am strongly reminded that the alliance which binds us was not built in a day. Therefore, it is our duty to make this tie further stronger. The next year, 2012, is the centennial anniversary of Tokyo's gift of cherry trees to Washington DC.

I wish to express my hope that this year Japan and the United States would demonstrate their determination to continue to deepen our friendship and to strengthen mutual trust, just as these resplendent cherry blossoms that adorn the Potomac every spring will continue to bloom.

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Japanese family & child custody

Thursday, January 13, 2010, 4:00-5:15 PM


THE JAPANESE FAMILY AND CHILD CUSTODY

“I encouraged Minister Maehara and the Government of Japan to work toward ratification of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.”

– US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks With Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Seiji Maehara After Their Meeting (As Prepared), Washington, DC, January 6, 2011

Presenter

Dr. Allison Alexy
Anthropologist

Allison Alexy is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Lafayette College. Her teaching and research focus on family lives, intimacy, and social change in contemporary Japan. Professor Alexy is the co-editor (with Richard Ronald) of Home and Family in Contemporary Japan: Continuity and Transformation (Routledge 2011) and is currently finishing a manuscript entitled Intimate Separations: Divorce and its Reverberations in Contemporary Japan. Professor Alexy received a BA double concentrating in Anthropology and Sociology from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Anthropology from Yale University.
Program Location
1150 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 801
(Blake Real Estate Conference Room),
Washington, DC

Free, Reservations Required, Coffee
(202) 822-6040
Space Limited

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

50th Anniversary of President Eisenhower's Farewell Address



January 17th is the 50th anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation where he worried about the creation of a military industrial complex in the United States. There are a number of programs this month in Washington discussing the history and significance of the speech.

THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX REVISITED: EISENHOWER'S WARNING 50 YEARS LATER. 1/11, 12:15-1:45pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: New America Foundation. Speakers: Gordon Adams, Distinguished Fellow, Stimson Center; David Berteau, Senior Advisor, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Danielle Brian, Executive Director, Project on Government Oversight; Moderator, William D. Hartung, Director, Arms and Security Initiative, New America Foundation, Author, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.

THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AT 50: ASSESSING THE MEANING AND IMPACT OF EISENHOWER'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 1/13, 9:00am-12:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Cato Insitute. Speakers: Susan Eisenhower, Chairman Emeritus, The Eisenhower Institute; Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations and History, Boston University; Charles J. Dunlap, Jr., Maj. Gen., USAF (Ret.), Visiting Professor and Associate Director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, Duke University School of Law; Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Lawrence Wilkerson, Visiting Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy, College of William and Mary; Moderated by Christopher Preble, Director of Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute; Eugene Gholz, Associate Professor and Distinguished Scholar at the Robert Strauss Center on International Security and Law, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin; John C. Hulsman, Senior Research Fellow, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies; Richard K. Betts, Director, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University; Moderated by Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

SACRED TRINITY AND WASHINGTON RULES: AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY FOR OVER 50 YEARS. 1/13, 11:30am-2:00pm, Lunch, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Woman’s National Democratic Club (WNDC). Speaker: Col. Andrew Bacevich (retired), professor of International Relations and History at Boston University and the author of the recent Washington Rules: America's Permanent Path To War (2010).

EISENHOWER'S FAREWELL ADDRESS AT FIFTY: WAS HE RIGHT ABOUT THE "SCIENTIFIC-TECHNOLOGICAL ELITE"? 1/18, 4:30- 6:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Speakers: Dan Greenberg, science journalist and author of several books on science policy; Gregg Pascal Zachary, author of the authoritative biography of Vannevar Bush; William Lanouette, a journalist on science policy and from 1991 to 2006 a senior analyst on energy and science issues at GAO; Dan Sarewitz, co-director of Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes.

THE FAREWELL ADDRESS: 50 YEARS LATER. 1/18, 6:30-9:30, Washington, DC. Sponsor: The Newseum; the Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College; and the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. Speakers: Dana Priest The Washington Post, Evan Thomas, Newsweek; James Fallows, national correspondent at the Atlantic; and David Gergen, CNN and the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.