"Australian Perspectives on China and Northeast Asian Security"

East-West Center Asian Security Luncheon Seminar

* This event is free and open to the public *

Asian Security Luncheon Seminar, Co-Sponsored with the Australian National University and CNA
Where: The East-West Center in Washington, 1819 L St. NW, 2nd Floor Conference Room
When: July 18, 2008, 12:30-2:30 PM

As a key stakeholder in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia's future is inextricably linked to its neighbors'. To live peacefully within its geostrategic environment, Australia must understand and engage with Asia's increased profile in the international community—especially the rise of China—in shaping global forces and outcomes. How can Australia cultivate a model of middle power diplomacy that promotes peace and prosperity in the region, particularly in Northeast Asia? How is Australia confronting its relationship with China, and what are the implications for the U.S.-Australia alliance? This seminar seeks to answer these questions with insights from one of Australia's most senior and respected Northeast Asia analysts, Dr. Richard Rigby. It will also feature commentary from Dr. David Finkelstein, Vice President and Director of China Studies at CNA, as well as a delegation of leading China experts from The Australian National University.

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to Alison Hazell via email at hazella@eastwestcenter.org or by phone, 202-327-9752, to reserve your seat. There will be a light lunch served at 12:30 PM before the program.

Richard Rigby is a former Australian diplomat and senior bureaucrat, with many decades of experience in East Asia. Rigby graduated with First Class Honours in History at the ANU in 1970, and went on to do his PhD—subsequently reworked and published by the ANU Press as The May 30th Movement—under Professor Wang Gungwu in the then Department of Far Eastern History (now East Asian History). He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1975, where he worked until the end of 2001: postings included Tokyo, Beijing (twice), Shanghai (Consul-General 1994-1998), London, and Israel (Ambassador, 2000-2001). He then joined the Office of National Assessments as Assistant Director-General, responsible for North and South Asia, where he worked until becoming the Executive Director of the ANU's China Institute in April 2008.

David M. Finkelstein is a Vice President at CNA and is the Director of CNA China Studies. He received his PhD in Chinese history from Princeton University and studied Mandarin at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. A long-time student of Chinese and Asian affairs, he is widely published. His 1993 historical monograph, From Abandonment to Salvation: Washington's Taiwan Dilemma, 1949-50 (GMU Press), was hailed in Presidential Studies Quarterly as "blazing a new trail" and "will take an important place in the literature of U.S.-China relations in the mid-20th Century." He is co-editor of China's Leadership in the 21st Century: The Rise of the Fourth Generation (M.E. Sharpe, 2002), Chinese Warfighting: The PLA Experience Since 1949 (M.E. Sharpe, 2003), China's Revolution in Doctrinal Affairs: Recent Trends in the Operational Art of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (CNA, 2005), and Civil-Military Relations In Today's China: Swimming In A New Sea (M.E. Sharpe, June 2006). A retired U.S. Army officer, Finkelstein is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, and the Army War College. He has held command and staff positions at the platoon, company, battalion, and Major Army Command levels. He also held significant China-related positions at the Pentagon as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense and Chairman, JCS in addition to serving on the faculty at West Point, where he taught Chinese history.

Geremie Barmé, professor of Pacific and Asian history at the Australian National University, is a specialist on 20th-century Chinese intellectual and cultural history, contemporary Chinese cultural and intellectual debates, and Beijing's history and reconstruction. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Asian Studies from the ANU (majoring in Chinese and Sanskrit), he studied at universities in the People's Republic of China (1974-77) and Japan (1980-83), with periods working as a journalist, freelance writer, and translator in Hong Kong and China. He holds a PhD from the Australian National University.

Katherine Morton is a Fellow in the Department of International Relations at ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific, specializing in China with research interests that include global civil society, international environmental politics, international development, and the influence of international norms and interventions on domestic political and socioeconomic change.She holds a PhD from the Austrlalian National University.

Jane Golley, Senior Lecturer at the ANU's Crawford School of Economics and Government, is an economist specializing in Chinese economic growth, regional development, industrial agglomeration, and "new" economic geography as it applies to China. She received her doctorate from Oxford University.