'America Is Back': Views From Southeast Asia
VIEW EVENT DETAILSThe election of the Biden administration presents an opportunity for both the United States and Asia to reinvigorate relations. How Southeast Asia figures into that equation, and how it sees cooperation with the United States and other regional partners, unfolding over the next four years can reinforce an open, transparent, inclusive, and rules-based regional architecture.
This 90-minute webinar will identify particular areas of policy convergence and practical cooperation on political, security, and defense issues between the United States and Southeast Asia. The event, featuring five established and next-generation speakers from Japan and Southeast Asia, will explore the following questions:
- What political, security, and defense expectations do Southeast Asian policy leaders have for the first year of the Biden administration?
- What realistic courses of action to refresh relations can be taken against the twin backdrops of a global economic downturn and a lingering pandemic?
- What practical steps can be taken to strengthen the ASEAN-US strategic partnership?
- How can partners such as Japan collaboratively enhance a rules-based architecture for the region’s peace, security, stability, and prosperity?
SPEAKERS
Elina Noor (Moderator) is Director, Political-Security Affairs and Deputy Director, Washington, D.C. Office at the Asia Society Policy Institute. A native of Malaysia, Elina’s work focuses on security developments in Southeast Asia as well as global governance and technology. Previously, Elina was Associate Professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. Prior to that, she was Director, Foreign Policy and Security Studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia. Elina served on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. She is a member of the Christchurch Call Advisory Network. Elina was educated at Oxford University, The London School of Economics and Political Science, and Georgetown University.
Aries A. Arugay is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean for Research, Extension, and Publications in the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy from the University of the Philippines in Diliman (UP). He is also Editor-in-Chief of Asian Politics & Policy, an academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Policy Studies Organization. His main research interests are comparative democratization, civil-military relations, ASEAN regionalism, and Philippine foreign and security policy. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from Georgia State University in 2014 as a Fulbright Fellow and his MA and BA (cum laude) in Political Science from UP.
Thuy T. Do is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and is currently posted at Vietnam’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, World Trade Organization and other international organizations in Geneva. She obtained a doctoral degree from the Department of International Relations, Australian National University in 2016. She previously held visiting fellowships at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), the East – West Center, and Japan’s Institute of International Affairs. Her research interests include non-Western IR, multilateralism, East Asian studies, and Vietnam’s foreign policy.
Kei Koga is Assistant Professor at the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). His research focuses on IR theory, International Security, International Institutions, and East Asian security, including transformation of U.S.-bilateral security networks and ASEAN–led institutions in the Indo-Pacific region. His recent publication includes “Japan's ‘Indo-Pacific’ question” (International Affairs, 2020); “The Concept of ‘Hedging’ Revisited” (International Studies Review, 2018); and “ASEAN’s Evolving Institutional Strategy” (Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2018). He received his PhD in International Relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Shafiah Muhibat is a Senior Researcher and the Head of Department of International Relations, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia. She joined CSIS in December 2000, and since then has taken part in extensive research projects on politics and regional security in the Asia Pacific. In 2017, she joined the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) Singapore as a Senior Fellow at the Maritime Security Programme for one year. She has a special interest in issues of regional security in East Asia, ASEAN, maritime security, Indonesia’s foreign policy, and development cooperation. Previously, she was the Chief Editor of The Indonesian Quarterly, a quarterly academic journal published by CSIS, from 2013 to 2016. She was also a lecturer at two private universities in Jakarta from 2005 to 2009. She obtained a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2003 and a doctoral degree from the University of Hamburg in 2013.
Pich Charadine is the Deputy Executive Director the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace in charge of Research, Training and Publication. She concurrently serves as the Coordinator of the Global Center for Mekong Studies. Ms. Pich’s focus is on Cambodia’s politics and foreign relations, Sino-Cambodia relations, ASEAN regional framework and ASEAN-China partnership, and Mekong sub-regional cooperation. She was nominated to the 2019 US Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program on ASEAN-Nations of the South China Sea – Sovereignty and Rules-based Order. She was also the Visiting Fellow at the China Institute for International Studies in 2018 and Visiting Scholar at China Foreign Affairs University in 2019. Ms. Pich obtained her BA in Political Science and International Relations with High Honors from Zaman University, Cambodia and an MA in Dialogue Studies with Merit from Keele University, United Kingdom.