It is my pleasure to be here this afternoon. I think what we normally say is that there's no free lunch. Today I think it is my great honor to address the distinguished members and guests of the Asia Society today. As you are all friends of Thailand, or at least friends of Asia, I must say I feel quite at home. At the very least, I know that here, if I say I am Thai, no one will ask what I think about reunification with the mainland!
Leslie Gelb is currently President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was previously a correspondent and editor at the New York Times. In this extensive interview with Nermeen Shaikh at Asia Society, covering Iraq, Iran, the rise of China, and the new constraints on US power, Dr Gelb explains why he was initially in favor of a three-state partition of Iraq, and his advocacy now of a decentralized, federal state structure. He elaborates on his subsequent work with Senator Joe Biden on a plan for Iraq. In responding to a question about Russia, Dr Gelb says that the proposed US missile defense system is "nonsense", and on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Dr Gelb insists that talks are essential and that the military option cannot be ruled out.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, China, Iraq, New York, Iran, Middle East, North Korea, and Latin America
Ambassador Sadegh Kharazi has served twice as Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister. He was Iran's ambassador to the UN from 1989 to 1995, and to France from 2002 to 2005. Ambassador Kharazi has also worked as senior assistant to Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, as well as to President Mohammad Khatami, who served from 1997-2005 as Iran's reformist leader (his successor is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). In addition Ambassador Kharazi has served as chairman of the OIC Summit in Iran.
Ariel Cohen is Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Security at the Sarah and Douglas Allison Center of the Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, and the Association for the Study of Nationalities. Dr Cohen spoke to Nermeen Shaikh on April 22nd in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the Eurasian Media Forum. In the interview, Dr Cohen speaks about the war in Iraq, the privatization of oil and gas development, Eurasian regional politics, and the role of the US in the area.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Iraq, Central Asia, Eurasia, Middle East, Kazakhstan, and London
Mongkol Na Songkhla is the Minister of Public Health in Thailand. He has served in the Ministry of Public Health since his appointment on October 9, 2006. Dr. Mongkol Na Songkhla spoke with Asia Society's Nermeen Shaikh during a visit to New York where he joined a press conference with President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to announce a global pooled procurement of anti-retroviral drugs.
Sadanand Dhume, a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at Asia Society, is a journalist and writer with a long-standing interest in Asia. He has recently completed a book on the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia. As a former Indonesia correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Asian Wall Street Journal in Jakarta, Sadanand covered Indonesia's economic, political, security and social scene. Before that he was the New Delhi bureau chief of FEER.
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at Asia Society, is the Foreign Editor of The Hindustan Times and a leading figure in Indian policymaking circles. He was previously an editorial writer for The Telegraph and The Statesman of Calcutta. [http://www.asiasociety.org/about/schwartz.html] Pramit has written widely on India's foreign and international economic policies. He is a regular talking head on Asian television and radio stations. In this interview, he discusses the future of US-India relations.
Dr Abdullah Abdullah was appointed foreign minister of Afghanistan following the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, a position he retained till March 2006. He spoke to Nermeen Shaikh in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the Eurasian Media Forum, about what the greatest failures of the war on terrorism have been, what the prospects for Afghanistan are now, and the role of Pakistan in contributing to the deteriorating security situation in the region. In particular, Dr Abdullah alleges that the government of Pakistan has consistently drawn a distinction between Al Qaeda militants - whom the Pakistani authorities have handed over to the US - and Taliban leaders, whom Pakistan continues to protect.
Topic:
International Relations and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, Kazakhstan, Asia, and Taliban
Marcus Noland is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His work encompasses a wide range of topics including the political economy of US trade policy and the Asian financial crisis. Mr Noland is unique among American economists in having devoted serious scholarly effort to the problems of North Korea and the prospects for Korean unification. He won the 2000–01 Ohira Masayoshi Award for his book Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States, America, Asia, North Korea, and Korea
Zahid Hussain is the Pakistan correspondent for the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. He is also the political correspondent for the Karachi-based monthly Newsline. According to Ahmed Rashid, one of the foremost experts on Afghanistan and author of several books on the region, Zahid Hussain's new book, Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam "is the first serious exposure of the rise and continuation of Islamic extremism in Pakistan. Zahid Hussain shows the links between the major jihadi groups of Pakistan, Al Qaeda, and the ISI with a degree of detail not seen in any Western writing on the subject."
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics