AUDIO

When Barack Obama is inaugurated in January, he will face one of the most daunting international economic and security situations since the Cold War’s end. As he confronts a global financial crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continuing threat of jihadist terrorism, he will also be forced to address a host of policy challenges in the Asia Pacific: a rising China, a resurgent Japan, an India “looking East,” and questions about the future of the Korean Peninsula, the role of Taiwan in the region, the threat of radical Islam in Southeast Asia, and the possibility of regional great-power competition.

Under the leadership of codirectors Dan Blumenthal, a resident fellow at AEI, and Aaron Friedberg, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, the Asia Strategy Working Group--created in fall 2007 and comprised of leading national security and Asia policy scholars--has published An American Strategy for Asia, a study that addresses the implications of these developments for U.S. policy in the region and outlines steps the United States must take to preserve peace and stability, promote prosperity, and support the spread of democratic institutions in the Asia Pacific. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-D-Conn.) and Richard Ellings, president of the National Bureau of Asian Research, have offered commentary on the report, which has also been endorsed by experts and government officials ranging from former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage to former deputy under secretary of defense for Asia--Pacific affairs Richard Lawless.

At this event, Blumenthal and Friedberg will present the findings of the report, and former Los Angeles Times China correspondent and bestselling author James Mann will moderate.

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