Category: Polaris Blog

PolarisLive: Upcoming Events

Thank you for your support of Polaris-Live.com “United States and China in the World”.

 

March 20th 11:00 AM EST – Jorge Heine – Role for Latin America In U.S.-China Competition?

Ambassador Jorge Heine is a lawyer, IR scholar and diplomat with a special interest in the international politics of the Global South. Ambassador Heine is Research Professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.

The global landscape is shifting as the power dynamics between Latin America, U.S., and China continue to evolve. These changes are reshaping the world order and influencing international relations on a grand scale.

Will the the countries of Latin America with a population of over 430 million people, have to choose between the two superpowers? How will China and the U.S. fine-tune their strategies to accommodate the impact of technology and the emergence of the global south? What will be the impact of this shift in global geostrategic balance on the existing Western-led global order?

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April 2nd 9:30 AM EDT – Luv Puri – India’s Bollywood elections – Donald Trump’s envy!

India’s Bollywood elections must be the envy of Donald Trump — Lock up the opposition and freeze its bank accounts–the “largest democracy in the world” goes to the poll in a Bollywood inspired election that is about to roll across India.
A frank appraisal of a fast changing India from an international, experienced Indian observer.

Luv Puri has been working in the field of International Affairs for two-decades, both as a practitioner and an analyst. He was with the UN Department of Political Affairs for ten years, during which period he worked at the highest levels of multilateral diplomacy, including as part of the Secretary-General’s Good Offices. He started his career working with the widely-read and respected daily, The Hindu where he reported on conflict areas with a focus on issues related to Human Rights for several years. In 2006, he won the European Commission Award for Human Rights and Democracy.

At present, he is a columnist on International Affairs for several widely-read publications (authory.com/Luv Puri). He has authored two books, including -“Across the Line of Control” -, published by Columbia University Press. and was a Fulbright Scholar from 2008-10. He did his Masters in New York University.

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April 16th 9:30 AM EDT – Aminda Smith – Is China’s “Communism”, really Communism?

The Chinese Communist Party governs the country from each village and city building to the very top of the country’s power structure. The CCP has the authority to preside over the government’s decisions at both central and local levels. Unlike the Soviet Union, however, China is largely a free-market economy that produces as many billionaires as does the U.S. How well does the U.S. understand the CCP? Does this lack of understanding prohibit better relations between the two superpowers?

Dr. Aminda Smith is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Michigan State University. She is a historian specializing in modern Chinese history with a particular interest in the social and cultural history of Chinese Communism. She serves as co-director of the PRC History Group, an international scholarly organization dedicated to increasing research and knowledge on the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Smith has written widely on the global histories of the Chinese Communist Party and Maoism.

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PolarisLive: Upcoming Events

Thank you for your support of Polaris-Live.com “United States and China in the World”.

 

November 7th 9:00 AM EDT – Flora Huang – A new pathway to investing in China

As more investors and novice corporate finance executives outside China begin to begin their journey tapping into China’s long term growth, and Chinese investors into investment opportunities in the West, they will likely want to know more how about a novel channel – Stock Connect. – and its implications on local and global financial markets.

This significant and timely book explores a novel market mechanism, Stock Connect, which gives mutual market access to Chinese and international investors, and provides original analyses and fresh insights. This mechanism could become the new normal in future global financial integration.

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November 17th 9:15 AM EDT – ZHA Daojiong – China Expert Views Joe Biden-Xi Jinping Meeting

Two Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, will meet Wednesday 15 November for their most consequential diplomatic rendezvous in many years.

The world has many questions for them including:

“Whether the United States and China are inevitably cruising toward confrontation or whether the two countries can strike some balance between engagement and competition, and, in the process, bring stability to the world.

The U.S. hopes to resume military communications that were broken off last year and China hopes that the U.S. will emphatically recognize Beijing as the sole government of China.

“But, there is hope”

“We have a $700 billion trading relationship with China. The vast majority — 99 percent of that — has nothing to do with export controls,” Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, told CNN this weekend.

“Xi told a visiting U.S. congressional delegation last month that there were “a thousand reasons to make U.S.- China relations better, and no reason to make them worse (Slate Magazine.)

Still, China’s economy is stumbling and Xi Jinping could use some U.S. help; meanwhile, Biden is in full election mode and could use some patience and understanding from China.

One of China’s most astute observers will provide Polaris Live viewers with an early China perspective on this meeting.

ZHA Daojiong

Professor of International Political Economy in the School of International Studies and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China.

His areas of expertise include non-traditional security studies, international political economy and China’s international economic relations. His research publications cover such topics as energy, cross-boundary water management, development aid and public health, and international development cooperation. He also contributes opinion pieces in newspapers including the South China Morning Post. He studied at the University of Hawaii and the East West Center, where he earned a Doctorate in Political Science. Before joining the faculty of Peking University, he taught in the University of Macau, International University of Japan, Miyazaki International College, and Renmin University of China.

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November 17th 12:00 PM EDT – Bonnie Glaser – U.S. Expert Views Joe Bidenv-Xi Jinping Meeting

Two Presidents, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, met Wednesday 15 November for their most consequential diplomatic rendezvous in many years.

The world had many questions for them including:

The future of a their $700 billion trading relationship. Will it survive?

The future of Taiwan and the seas around China?

Will the two superpowers’ militaries ever return each others phone calls?

How much did this meeting accomplish?

China’s economy is stumbling and Xi Jinping could use some U.S. help; meanwhile, Joe Biden is in full election mode and could use some patience and understanding from China.

BONNIE S. GLASER
She is managing director of GMF’s Indo-Pacific program. She is also a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. She is a co-author of US-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis (Brookings Press, April 2023). She was previously senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy for more than three decades.

Ms. Glaser has published widely, including the Washington Quarterly, China Quarterly, Far Eastern Economic Review, and Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

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November 28th 9:30 AM EDT – Thomas Sherlock – Russia Through the eyes of President Putin

Why it is that in the war with Ukraine, even after the death of thousands of Russians servicemen and women, the Russian people have not overthrown Mr. Putin?

• Is the China/Russia partnership is an alliance of convenience? What is the glue that holds the alliance together. Is this alliance a permanent change in their relationship?

• Might it be possible, even after the horrors of this conflict, as part of a long-term settlement to this war to include Russia in a Europe-wide security compact?

• Was the Mid-East conflict a gift to Russia in that the West is more divided. How might the ME conflict impact the China/Russia compact?

DR. THOMAS SHERLOCK
Professor emeritus of political science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His writing does not represent the views of the U.S. government, the Department of the Army, or the U.S. Military Academy. Thomas’s opinion pieces have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times (international edition), the Washington Post and other news outlets. He has served as a consultant or project manager for the Carnegie Council, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Open Society Foundations (Ukraine), and EUROCLIO in The Netherlands, among other institutions. He frequently conducts field research in post-Soviet space, including the supervision of large-N national surveys and focus groups in Russia.

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PolarisLive: Upcoming Events

Thank you for your support of Polaris-Live.com “United States and China in the World”.

Feb. 7th 09:30ET – Pamela Crossley – U.S. and China – Business and Business

DR. PAMELA CROSSLEY, Dartmouth College, is a specialist on the Qing empire and modern Chinese history, and also researches and writes on Central and Inner Asian history, global history, the history of horsemanship in Eurasia before the modern period, and the imperial sources of modern identities.

She is the author of eight books– including China’s Global Empire: Qing, 1636-1912,; Hammer and Anvil: Nomad Rulers at the Forge of the Modern World; The Wobbling Pivot: China since 1800; She has been widely published widely in the media and appears frequently in Polaris-Live.com to provide her unique perspective to Polaris Live’s coverage of U.S. – China relations and their impact on the world.

She is the recipient of the prestigious Jerome Goldstein Award for Distinguished Teaching. Crossley is an original appointee of the Dartmouth Society of Fellows.

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Feb. 21st 09:30ET – James Ketterer–U.S. influence in Middle East

DR. JAMES KETTERER is Dean of the School of Continuing Education at the American University, Cairo, Egypt.. He previously served as Dean of International Studies at Bard College and Academic Director of the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program. and he taught in Bard’s Political Studies and Global and International Studies programs. Ketterer previously served as Egypt Country Director for AMIDEAST. Prior to that, he was Vice-Chancellor for Policy and Planning and Deputy Provost at the State University of New York (SUNY) where he also was the director of the Center for International Development.

In government, he served on the staff of the New York Commission on Higher Education, the National Security Council staff at the White House and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and  serves on the board of the Swedish Program at the Stockholm School of Economics, the organizing committee of the 2020 Transatlantic Dialogue at the University of Luxembourg and as a Senior Fellow at the Bard Center for Civic Engagement.

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Feb. 28th 08:00ET – Shan Weijian-U.S. company takes over Chinese Bank. Believe it!

“The Money Machine,” is Weijian Shan’s third book, based on his leading role in steering the take over of Shanghai Development Bank by an American Private Equity Company.

WEIJIAN SHAN is chairman and CEO of PAG, a private equity firm. Over more than 20 years in investing, he has led a number of landmark transactions across Asia. He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. Shan is the bestselling author of “Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America” and “Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank”, published in October 2020.

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Mar. 7th 09:30ET – Shehzad Qazi — Inside the Chinese economy post COVIC

Managing Director China Beige Book which provides institutional investors and corporate decision-makers with market leading insights derived directly from our nationwide proprietary data on the Chinese economy.

Shehzad oversees product innovation, client services, new business

acquisition, and corporate strategy at China Beige Book International. Since 2012, Shehzad has helped develop data collection for the China Beige Book™ platform and supervised the analytics team. He frequently appears on major national and international media.

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Mar. 14th 19:00ET – Rajat Ganguly – China’s ME diplomacy- Asian Perspectives

Rajat Ganguly is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs (https://journals.sagepub.com/home/aia) and a senior faculty member in International Relations and Security Studies at Murdoch University, Western Australia. He has held faculty positions in the UK and the U.S., and was a Visiting Research Fellow at McGill University in Canada. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of South Asian Development, South Asian Survey, and the Journal of North-East Indian Studies. He specializes in international relations and international security, particularly great power politics and interstate war, ethnic conflict and insurgency movements, terrorism and political violence, Indian foreign and security policy, and Asian international and strategic affairs.

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Mar. 21st 13:00ET – Mei Gechlik – Business, Law, and Politics in China

DR. MEI GECHLIK is Identified by The Women Leaders Magazine as one of the “20 Most Inspiring Women Leaders 2022“, Dr. Mei Gechlik founded SINOTALKS® after an extensive career in academia and leading policy think tanks. SINOTALKS® addresses the growing need for a trusted resource highlighting Chinese law and policy to help decision-makers around the world find strategic solutions to problems affecting China and beyond.

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Apr. 4th 08:00EDT – Dewi Fortuna Anwar – China’s diplomacy, an Asian perspective

China is fast deploying a forward leaning diplomacy to match its economic strength. Witness the recent diplomatic achievement by China of bringing Saudi Arabia and Iran together in the Middle East, traditionally an exclusively American area of influence. . How is this viewed from the perspective of Indonesia in particular and SE Asia in general ? The U.S. as a declining power relative to China?

Prof. Dewi Fortuna Anwar is Research Professor, Research Centre for Politics-National Research and Innovation Agency (PRP-BRIN), Jakarta, Indonesia. She has written widely on Indonesia’s foreign policy, Indonesia’s democratization as well as on ASEAN and regional political and security issues. Dewi is a co-founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) and sits in a number of national and international advisory boards. She is Chairman, Board of Directors, The Habibie Center, Academician, Social Science Commission-Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) and Co-Founder of the Foreign Policy Committee of Indonesia.

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Apr. 25th 09:30EDT – Michele Geraci – Will Italy Disconnect From China?

The Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni still has yet to decide whether to renew the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Rome and Beijing that is set to expire next year. Why? The lead architect of the MoU will give his opinion on this turn events.

The impact on Europe in general and Italy in particular of the recent diplomatic achievement by China of bringing Saudi Arabia and Iran together. What message did this send to the EU of America’s influence in the ME.

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MICHELE GERACI is Head of China Economic Policy Program at Nottingham University Business School, Head of China at the Global Policy Institute, as well as Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor of Finance at Zhejiang University. He has been living in China since 2008 and works as advisor to governments, corporations and investors, offering practical-oriented policy recommendations and investment advice. Topics of interest include monetary policy, income disparity, migration, urbanization and European crisis.

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PolarisLive: Upcoming Events

Thank you for your support of Polaris-Live.com “United States and China in the World”.

We are taking a short break. Our Winter season will begin Tuesday 7 February 2023.
Please sign-up for the Polaris newsletter to keep abreast of the programming.

PolarisLive: February, March and April 2022 Schedule

February 22. 2022 8:00AM EST

Jonathan Fulton-Panel Discussion-U.S./China: Middle East Strategic Competition
From Abu Dhabi, UAE, Guest moderator, Prof. Jonathan Fulton, Zayed University and panelists Daniel Cederberg, Regional China Officer for the Middle East and North Africa, U.S. Department of State and Prof. Shaojin Chai, University of Sharjah will moderate panelists from the Middle East to discuss China’s accelerating business, economic, and cultural inroads into the Middle East; Is the U.S. paying attention to the warmth, breadth and depth of the Middle East’s welcome to China?

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8 March, 2022 7:30AM EST
Henry Gao – A New Chinese Economic Order?
Henry Gao is a CIGI senior fellow and a law professor at Singapore Management University. With law degrees from three continents, he started his career as the first Chinese lawyer at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat. He taught law at the University of Hong Kong, where he was also deputy director of the East Asian International Economic Law and Policy (IELPO) program. He has taught at the IELPO program in Barcelona, Spain, and the Academy of International Trade Law in Macau, and was the academic coordinator for the first Asia-Pacific Regional Trade Policy Course officially sponsored by the WTO.

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15 March, 2022 9:30AM EST
Deanna Horton – Canada between China and the US
Deanna Horton is a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She is a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC, a Senior Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, and at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. She is a Board member of the Stratford-Perth County Museum. She speaks French, Japanese, and German.
Previously a career foreign service officer, she was appointed as Ambassador of Canada to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Canadian Embassy in Washington as Minister (Congressional, Public and Intergovernmental Affairs). She was a negotiator on the North American Free Trade Agreement. She served as Director, Canada’s Office of the Deputy Minister for International Trade.

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24 March, 2022 9:30AM EST
Susan Thornton – China Tariffs? Americans Deserve Better
Guest host Arthur Kroeber, highly respected analyst of China’s economy with Polaris-Live’s guest Ambassador Susan Thornton.

Susan A. Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during the first 18 months of the Trump administration and led East Asia policy-making amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China. She is a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is currently a Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center. She is also the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

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4 April, 2022 9:00PM EST
Dewi Fortuna Anwar – ASEAN, U.S., and China

Professor Dewi Fortuna Anwar is a Research Professor at the Centre for Politics at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. She previously served as Deputy Secretary in the Vice President’s office from 2010-2017 and a senior foreign affairs official from 1998-1999. She has also advised many international organisations and is currently a governing board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

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26 April, 2022 9:30AM EST
Deborah Brautigam: China’s BRI NOT debt trap
Some journalists, pundits and policymakers have promoted the idea that Chinese banks deliberately lend to risky countries to secure strategic assets. Prof. Brautigam’s research questions the evidence for “debt trap diplomacy.”

The nature of Chinese lending in risky countries remains poorly understood, a weakness that leads to faulty assumptions that result that are an impediment for crafting an effective U.S. foreign policy for China.

Deborah Brautigam, a leading expert on China in Africa, and China’s vast infrastructure project-Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – is the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and Director of the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC. A Sinologist with extensive Africa research experience, she is the author of over 50 journal articles and book chapters.

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The United States decisively terminated its 20 year long war in Afghanistan on August 31, 2021. In the world of geopolitics it was a seminal event, for many reasons: It was another military defeat for the world’s richest country with the world’s most powerful and well equipped military, at the hands of the Taliban, an army only in name that fights in sandals. A humiliating ending for America, to say the least.

While it is too early to figure out what this defeat means for America, for Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan–the key players in that part of the world, it is not too early to state that the impact will be profound.

PolarisLive joins this geopolitically, and economically critical dialogue in our October 2021 lineup featuring experts from the U.S., India, and Pakistan.

12 October 2021 9:30AM ET

Larry Goodson & Pamela Crossley – Out of Afghanistan
On October 12, Professor Pamela Crossley, Dartmouth College’s renowned China expert will host PolarisLive’s guest Professor Larry Goodson of the U.S. Army War College. Prof. Goodson is one of the most knowledgeable Americans about Afghanistan, and its neighbors, especially India and Pakistan. He is steeped in the geopolitics of all three countries through numerous visits and his views are sought out by U.S. military and political leaders. Goodson and Crossley will set the stage for PolarisLive’s discussion of the impact of America’s defeat by the Taliban on the Asian subcontinent and for America’s policy for the region.

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19 October 2021 7:00AM ET
Ayushi Ketkar, Prof. J.N University, India – Out of India
On October 19, we welcome Professor Ayushi Ketkar, from Jawarhalal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and its Special Center for National Security Studies. Her latest book “Geopolitics of the Himalayan Region,” is essential reading to understand the fault lines of that region.

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26 October 2021 7:30AM ET
Dr. Nadim Hussain, Islamic Policy Research Institute – Out of Afghanistan
On 26 October we welcome Dr. Nadim Hussain, Executive Director of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) based in Islamabad. He was previously the director of South Asia Study Group at the University of Sydney. He has served in senior advisory roles in the Government of Pakistan on matters of security, development and foreign policy.

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Welcome to PolarisLive’s 2nd year. . It is a pleasure for me to announce our September 2021 guest lineup and some programming changes that you will notice during the next year.

First the changes. They are a direct result of feedback from you, our viewers.

Beginning this month you will occasionally see someone else in the host’s chair. This will let us broaden the perspective of the informed and forthright conversation you have come to expect from PolarisLive. In a way this is like the “by invitation” guest columns in forward-thinking media. Another innovative step in PolarisLive’s leadership in exploring the most consequential relationship of our time–that between the United States and China.

We will also move to a bi-weekly format to give more depth to understanding the topic that is being illuminated. But we do this with an entrepreneurial caveat—whenever current events dictate PolarisLive will add an episode between the bi-weekly lineup that is sent to you at the beginning of each month.

We have changed the umbrella title for PolarisLive from “A China Agenda for President Biden,” to “The United States and China in the World.” The former title was a prelude to my report “The Telegram: A China Agenda for President Biden,” for the Foreign Policy Association (FPA)–which you can download from my website. Now we widen the aperture to take in the increasing complexity of the U.S. – China relationship. Think the American departure from Afghanistan and its impact on U.S.-India-Pakistan-China; increased complexity is an understatement, By the way, PolarisLive will explore the Afghan development through U.S., China, India, and Pakistan perspectives during October. Watch out for the announcements.

14 September 2021 8AM-9AM ET

An interview with Shan Weijian: Is China’s Communist Party jealous of its Capitalists?
On September 14, Shan Weijian, Chairman and CEO of PAG, one of Asia’s most influential private-equity firms, returns to PolarisLive to discuss the apparent turmoil in China’s giant financial-technology marketplace. What’s behind the last minute cancellation of large Chinese IPO’s on Wall Street. Is President Xi Jinping trying to bring China’s red-hot capitalism to heel? Is the Western media reporting these events accurately? Is Wall Street’s position as the world’s financial center in danger?

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21 September 2021 9:30AM-10:30AM ET
Prof. Li Xing, on “The Telegram: The United States and China in the World.”
On September 21 (see we’ve broken the bi-weekly format rule already!) Professor Xing Li, of Aalborg University, Denmark, takes over as PolarisLive’s host to question me about my analysis of the FPA report and especially its more controversial recommendations for large joint China-U.S. projects to ease the hostility between them. EG: the U.S. should use Wall Street money, American workers, and China’s expertise to rebuild American infrastructure.

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28 September 2021 1PM-2PM ET
Suzanne Nielsen, Colonel U.S. Army on “The Telegram: The United States and China in the World.”
On September 28, Suzanne Nielsen, Department Chair of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s famous Department of Social Studies (SOSH) takes over as host (in a personal capacity) to review the FPA report. Colonel Nielsen is one of the brightest thinkers in U.S. national security circles, and you won’t want to miss this episode.

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With a new American President and Administration there is an opportunity to recalibrate U.S. grand strategy for China to reflect today’s reality of two superpowers, with diametrically opposed governance ideologies, who have no choice but to co-exist. A new learning experience for both. POLARIS-LIVE invites leading experts and authors from the U.S., Asia, the EU, and around the world to converse with host Sarwar KASHMERI about their thoughts re what should be a 21st Century U.S. grand strategy for China. This schedule presents the dates/times/links to join the 40 minutes live programs through the end of June 2021. Each episode will be archived on the Polaris-Live channel and may also be accessed by the same links shown below.

Download the Foreign Policy Association Report

19 July 2021 5PM-6PM ET • ChinaFPA Live: FPA Report Release “A China Agenda for the Biden Administration” in conversation with Ryan Hass, Brookings Institution
Please join us for the official launch of this important FPA report, “A China Agenda for the Biden Administration,” published by FPA Fellow Sarwar Kashmeri. This report was informed by conversations held on Polaris-Live between January and May 2021 with leading U.S.-China experts from Asia, the EU, and the U.S. about their thoughts regarding what should be key agenda items that they would propose to President Biden’s team to improve the relationship between the two superpowers. Kashmeri’s narrative draws upon these expert views from across the political spectrum and from around the world.
Register

21 July 2021 8:30PM-9:30PM ET • FPA Asia Report Release “A China Agenda for the Biden Administration” in conversation with Kishore Mahbubani, National University of Singapore.
Please join us for the Asia launch of “A China Agenda for the Biden Administration” report; a conversation between Professor Kishore Mahbubani, noted author, Distinguished Fellow, Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore, and Sarwar Kashmeri, publisher of the report.
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