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21. A Conversation with Henry Kissinger

Author:
Nermeen Shaikh
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Henry Kissinger was US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. He served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 1969 to 1975. In July 1983 he was appointed by President Reagan to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America until it ceased operation in January 1985, and from 1984-1990 he served as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. From 1986-1988 he was a member of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council and Defense Department. Among the awards Dr. Kissinger has received have been the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973; the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation's highest civilian award) in 1977; and the Medal of Liberty (given one time to ten foreign-born American leaders) in 1986. Dr. Kissinger was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1938 and was naturalized a US citizen in 1943. He served in the army from 1943 to 1946. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1950 and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University in 1952 and 1954. At present, Dr. Kissinger is Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm. This interview with AsiaSource was conducted by Nermeen Shaikh prior to the Asia Society 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner of which Dr. Kissinger was an honorary chairman.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and National Security
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Central America

22. Interview with Sam Brownback

Author:
Nermeen Shaikh
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Sam Brownback was born in Kansas on September 12, 1956. He studied Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University, where he was elected student body president, and went on to earn a law degree from the University of Kansas. He was chosen as the youngest Secretary of Agriculture in Kansas state history in 1986. He also served for one year as a White House Fellow in the Office of the US Trade Representative. Brownback was elected to the US Congress in 1994, representing the Second District of Kansas. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1998 and was re-elected to a second six-year term in November 2004. Brownback is the chairman of the Helsinki Commission. He also chairs the Values Action Team, co-chairs the Senate Cancer Coalition, and is a member of both the Army and Air Force Caucuses. This interview was conducted following the Asia Society Luncheon program with Senator Sam Brownback on May 8, 2006. You have taken an active interest in the situation in Darfur, Sudan, North Korea and in the Middle East, to name only a few. Can you briefly outline what you think are the most pressing foreign policy issues confronting the United States at this time? It's probably the lead ones now: Iran. If you're just looking at straight foreign policy issues, I think, with Iran being the lead sponsor of terrorism around the world and with US foreign policy just being formulated at this point in time. It's tied in intimately with the global war on terrorism, which has been, for us to date, a sequential war. It's been Afghanistan, then Iraq and now you're seeing really the focus step up on Iran. That's probably, if you're looking at the most pressing issues, I think that's it for us today.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, and Middle East

23. AsiaSource Interview with Seymour Hersh

Author:
Nermeen Shaikh
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Seymour Hersh is one of America's premier investigative reporters and has uncovered some of the most important news stories of our times. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1970 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, and War
Political Geography:
United States and America

24. Terrorism Eclipses the Sunshine Policy: Inter-Korean Relations and the United States

Author:
Kongdan Oh
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
A half-century of zero-sum confrontation between South and North Korea ended symbolically when the two leaders of divided Korea finally met on June 13, 2000. The 74-year-old Kim Dae-jung, president of South Korea (the Republic of Korea, or ROK), flew to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK), to meet his counterpart, 58-year-old Kim Jong-il, chairman of the National Defense Committee. At Sunan Airport, the two leaders embraced while thousands of mobilized North Koreans sent up rousing cheers. Tens of thousands more lined the motorcade route into the city, and millions around the world watched the television coverage, fighting to keep back tears of joy.
Topic:
Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
United States, Israel, East Asia, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and Korea

25. The India-China Relationship: What the United States Needs to Know

Author:
Justin Sommers and Rapporteur
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Asia Society are pleased to present the report of our conference entitled “The India-China Relationship: What the United States Needs to Know,” which took place in Washington, D.C., on November 30, 2001. The conference, engaging experts and policymakers both in and out of government, was one phase in a larger joint project of the two organizations that will result in a scholarly volume.
Topic:
Diplomacy and Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, China, South Asia, Washington, India, and Asia

26. President Clinton's Visit to Vietnam

Author:
Frederick Z. Brown
Publication Date:
11-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
On November 17, 2000, President Bill Clinton begins a four-day state visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the first visit ever by an American president to the unified country of Vietnam. He will be accompanied by Mrs. Clinton, daughter Chelsea, and several cabinet secretaries, most likely state, commerce, health and human services, veterans affairs, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR). A congressional delegation is also planned.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, Economics, Human Rights, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, America, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia

27. South Asia After the Tests

Author:
Marshall Bouton
Publication Date:
07-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
It was recognized at the outset of the workshop that India's and Pakistan's nuclear tests in May 1998 raised a number of questions, both broad and specific. Three broad, but counter-intuitive questions were identified. First, just how much have the tests really changed the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and South Asia's security situation? A case can be made that the two countries' tests do no more than make explicit their nuclear capabilities, which have been fairly confidently known for years if not decades. Second, are there enhanced opportunities for stability and security as a result of the tests? While on the one hand the tests increase risks of conflict resulting from miscalculations and accidents, it is also possible that they will focus the attention of India and Pakistan on reducing tensions between them, and on increasing the security of the region as a whole. The tests might also have the benefit of making external actors such as China more aware of South Asia's security dynamics and the implications of its own policies for the region. Third, how much influence does the international community have on India's and Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs? In the past, India and Pakistan have been strongly resistant to external efforts to influence their security policies, and it is quite likely that this will remain the case despite strong responses to the tests from countries such as the United States.
Topic:
Nationalism and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
Pakistan, United States, China, South Asia, and India

28. Speeches and Transcripts: 1997

Author:
Frederick Z. Brown, William Clinton, Jiang Zemin, and William Itoh
Publication Date:
01-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Next week, when President Jiang Zemin comes to Washington, it will be the first state visit by a Chinese leader to the United States for more than a decade. The visit gives us the opportunity and the responsibility to chart a course for the future that is more positive and more stable and, hopefully, more productive than our relations have been for the last few years.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
United States, China, New York, Asia, and Southeast Asia

29. Bridges with Asia: Asian Americans in the United States

Author:
Vishakha N. Desai, Chang-lin Tien, Sanford J. Ungar, Robert T. Matsui, and Shirley Young
Publication Date:
05-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
From its inception, more than two years ago, “Bridges with Asia: Asian Americans in the United States” has sought to explore the implications of the bicultural identity—felt or perceived—of the Asian American in a global community in which the Asia-Pacific region has become increasingly predominant. The purpose was to examine the possible relationship between two significant factors in America's national and international experience: the unprecedented growth of the Asian American population in the last three decades and the rise of the Asia-Pacific region as one of the world's most dynamic areas as well as the one most crucial to the future of the United States. With an active advisory committee composed of scholars, community leaders, and representatives of other cultural organizations (see the end of this report), we attempted to address a number of key issues ranging from economic relations between different regions of Asia and the United States to generational attitudes toward Asian Americans' countries of origin. The following questions provided the framework for discussion: What roles do Asian Americans play in the increased interaction between U.S. companies and Asian countries? How are they affecting the domestic economies of their countries of origin? How are Asian Americans perceived by local American political leaders and what is their impact upon American domestic politics? What role, if any, do they play in U.S. foreign policy toward particular Asian countries? How is the notion of “home” used by writers and artists of Asian origin? How are conceptions of loyalty or nationalism made manifest for diverse groups of Asian Americans who often have very little in common except for a census category, or how they are perceived by others?
Topic:
Foreign Policy and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Asia