Peace picks, December 2-6

After a week of Thanksgiving festivities, here are this week’s top events:

1. CHP’s Vision for Turkey: An Address by Chairman Kılıçdaroğlu

Monday, December 2 | 11:30am – 1:00pm

Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

On December 2, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings will host Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chairman of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), for an address on Turkey, its foreign policy and its relations with the United States. In his remarks, Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will offer CHP’s vision for the future of Turkey with a particular focus on Turkish democracy and economics. He will also reflect on Turkey’s role in its neighborhood and offer thoughts on its transatlantic relations.

Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu has served as the chair of the Republican People’s Party since May 2010. He was first elected in 2002 as a member of the Turkish Parliament for the Istanbul province. He was reelected as an MP in 2007 and served as CHP’s Group Vice President until declaring his candidacy for the leadership of the party. Prior to his political career, Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu served in numerous high-ranking positions in the Turkish Ministry of Finance and the Social Security Organization.

Senior Fellow Ted Piccone, acting vice president and director of Foreign Policy at Brookings, will introduce Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu. At the conclusion of his remarks, Brookings TUSIAD Senior Fellow Kemal Kirişci will moderate the discussion. After the program, Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will take audience questions.

Introduction
Ted Piccone
Acting Vice President and Director, Foreign Policy
The Brookings Institution
Moderator
Kemal Kirişci
TUSIAD Senior Fellow and Director, Turkey Project
The Brookings Institution
Featured Speaker
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
Chairman
Republican People’s Party

2. A Conversation on: US-Phillipines Relations

Monday, December 2 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Official Residence of the Phillipines Ambassador, 2253 R Street NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

H.E. Jose L. Cuisia, Jr.
Ambassador of the Philippines to the United States
H.E. Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. assumed his post as Ambassador of the Philippines to the US on April 2, 2011 and presented his credentials to President Barack Obama on July 7, 2011. In this position, Ambassador Cuisia has worked to promote trade and investment opportunities in the Philippines; strengthen the security alliance with the US; and assist Philippine nationals while further cementing the robust relationship between the two countries. Together with his wife, Maria Victoria Jose, Ambassador Cuisia has actively promoted Philippine culture, especially among Filipino-American youth.Previously, Ambassador Cuisia served as the Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines and Chairman of its Monetary Board as well as President & CEO of the Philippine Social Security System in the 1980s and 1990s. At the Central Bank, Ambassador Cuisia oversaw the liberalization of foreign exchange controls, which increased foreign direct investment that strengthened the Philippine Peso and the country’s foreign exchange reserves. He also led the efforts to establish what is now the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.Before joining the government, Ambassador Cuisia worked for over 30 years in financial services in the Philippines and has served on the boards of many of the Philippines’ most important companies, as well as those of academic institutions and NGOs. He is a recipient of numerous awards including: the Joseph Wharton Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wharton Club of DC (2011); Management Man of the Year by the Management Association of the Philippines (2007); Manuel L. Quezon Awardee for Exemplary Governance (2006); Asia Insurance Personality of the Year (2005); and Philippine CEO of the Year (2004).
WFPG Members — $40          Non-Members — $60
Space is limited. Advance registration is required. Some parking is available.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to relief efforts in the Philippines.
3. Telling Their Story: A Journalists Mission to Syria
Tuesday, November 3 | 10:00am – 11:15am
New American Foundation, 1899 L Street NW, Suite 400
Syria is now the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. According to Reporters Without Borders, over 110 news providers have been killed inside Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 and at least 60 are counted as detained, abducted, or missing. This deadly environment means that journalists must balance their mission to tell the story with concerns for their own safety.

Rania Abouzeid, an award-winning freelance journalist with 15-years’ experience covering the Middle East, is one of the few reporters who has braved this climate, covering Syria from inside the country since the uprising broke out in March 2011. During this period, Abouzeid delivered critical breaking news on the insurgency, while also poignantly narrating the human side of the conflict. Abouzeid’s work has appeared inTIME MagazineThe New YorkerForeign PolicyForeign Affairs, and numerous other outlets.

On December 3, please join New America for a conversation with Rania Abouzeid on war reporting in Syria and other conflict areas in the region.

Join the conversation online using #tellingtheirstory and following @MideastChannel. 

 If you are unable to join us in person, please tune in to our live webcast of the event. No signup is required to view the streaming video. 

Featured Speakers:

Rania Abouzeid

Syria reporter and freelance journalist

Leila Hilal

Director, Middle East Task Force

New America Foundation

4. The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Asia
Tuesday, December 3 | 2:00pm
Atlantic Council, 1030 15th Street NW, 12th Floor
A  discussion with
Dr. Richard Bush
Director, Center for East Asia Policy Studies
Brookings InstitutionMr. Clyde Prestowitz
President
Economic Strategy Institute
Moderated by:
Mr. James Politi
US Economics and Trade Correspondent
Financial Times

The TPP is a free-trade agreement currently being negotiated between twelve countries: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and Japan. If agreed to, it would be one of the largest “free trade” agreements in US history. After WikiLeaks released the intellectual property chapter of the text on November 14, the TPP has run into serious resistance due to public scrutiny. Indeed, 151 Democrats and twenty-three Republicans in the US House of Representatives signed letters to the US’ chief negotiators expressing opposition to a “Fast Track” procedure for voting on the proposed agreement. Lost in the US domestic battle is what the TPP means for Asian allies, especially Taiwan. Taiwan is not part of the twelve-nation agreement, but wants to be. Recently, former Taiwanese Vice President Vicent Siew said that not only should the US and Taiwan renew bilateral trade negotiations, but Taiwan should be invited to join the TPP. As Taiwan claims, joining the TPP would not only contribute to the US’ initiative to rebalance its Asia policy, but it would also be a positive extension of the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.

To discuss the TPP and its impact on the region and Taiwan, the Atlantic Council has assembled top thinkers and policymakers on this issue. This event is part of the Asia Security Initiative’s Cross-Straits series, which examines strategic and current affairs surrounding cross-straits relations.

Bios

Dr. Richard Bush is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, holds the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, and is director of its Center for East Asia Policy Studies (CEAP). CEAP is a center for research, analysis, and debate to enhance policy development on the pressing political, economic and security issues facing East Asia and U.S. interests in the region. Richard Bush came to Brookings in July 2002, after serving almost five years as the chairman and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the mechanism through which the United States Government conducts substantive relations with Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic relations.Mr. Clyde Prestowitz is founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute. His leadership has propelled ESI into an important role in the public policy process, influencing and often defining the terms of the debate in the areas of international trade policy, economic competitiveness, and the effects of globalization. Mr. Prestowitz has played key roles in achieving congressional passage of NAFTA and in shaping the final content of the Uruguay Round, as well as providing the intellectual basis for current U.S. trade policies toward Japan, China, and Korea. Prior to founding ESI, Mr. Prestowitz served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration. There, he led many U.S. trade and investment negotiations with Japan, China, Latin America, and Europe.The moderator for the event, Mr. James Politi, is the US economics and trade correspondent for the Financial Times.
5. Subcommittee Hearing: The United States’ Post-Typhoon Response in the Philippines
Tuesday, December 3 | 3:00pm
Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2172, 45 Independence Avenue SW
Chairman Smith on the hearing“We will report on our visit to Tacloban City–the epicenter of destruction by typhoon Haiyan–which to me resembled photos taken after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and hear from representatives of governmental and faith-based organizations involved in the emergency relief efforts. We will take note of the great efforts of our own military and USAID in acting as first responders and in delivering aid to the victims of the disaster.  We will also salute the faith-filled resiliency of the Filipino people, with whom Americans share a unique bond of closeness that was cemented in the dark days of World War II, when American and Filipino soldiers fought and died together in the cause of liberty.”

Witnesses

Panel I

The Honorable Nancy Lindborg
Assistant Administrator
Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance
U.S. Agency for International Development

Panel II

Mr. Sean Callahan
Chief Operating Officer
Catholic Relief Services

Mr. Chris Palusky
Senior Director
Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs
World Vision

6. Potentials and Limitations of Japan-South Korea Relations

Wednesday, December 4 | 12:00pm – 1:30pm

East-West Center, 1819 L Street NW, Sixth Floor Conference Room

REGISTER TO ATTEND

The US-China relationship is under structural transformation, and will remain the most critical common denominator for the national strategies of Japan and South Korea for many years to come. The conclusion of the bilateral negotiations over the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) and the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA), intelligence and logistics sharing agreements between the militaries of Japan and Korea, were small but essential indicators that the strategic outlooks of Tokyo and Seoul finally began to converge. Domestic political circumstances, however, stalled the completion of the deal at the last moment

Dr. Yoshihide Soeya, argues that, ironically, the usual bilateral walls appear to be getting higher, precisely because of this strategic convergence. In his presentation, Dr. Soeya will discuss this paradox, and its implications for relations between the two key US allies in Northeast Asia.

Please note: Due to an overwhelmingly positive response, this program is now at capacity. Registration is now closed.

Join us for a LIVE webcast beginning at Noon EST on December 4. Click HERE to tune in!

A light luncheon will be served.


Dr. Yoshihide Soeya is professor of political science and international relations at the Faculty of Law of Keio University, and serves as the Director of the Center for Contemporary Korean Studies of the Institute of East Asian Studies, also at Keio. He is presently in residence as a Japan scholar in the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. Dr. Soeya currently serves on the councils of the Japan Association of International Studies and Japan Association for Asian Studies, and is a member of the International Council of the Asia Society in New York.

His areas of research interest are politics and security in East Asia, and Japanese diplomacy and external relations in the region and the world. Dr. Soyea’s major publications in English include “A ‘Normal’ Middle Power: Interpreting Changes in Japanese Security Policy in the 1990s and After,” in Yoshihide Soeya, Masayuki Tadokoro, and David A. Welch, eds., Japan as a ‘Normal Country’?: A Country in Search of its Place in the World (University of Toronto Press, 2011); and Japan’s Economic Diplomacy with China, 1945-1978(Clarendon Press, 1998). He received a Ph.D. Political Science from the University of Michigan, majoring in World Politics, and an MA in International Relations from Sophia University, Tokyo.

7. Subcommittee Hearing: Oversight of US Policy Towards Burma

Wednesday, December 4 | 2:00pm

Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2172, 45 Independence Avenue SW

Chairman Chabot on the hearing: “America’s policy in Burma has long been guided by policymakers on both sides of the aisle. Over the last year, however, the Obama Administration abandoned its “action-for-action” strategy for a forward leaning engagement policy that sacrifices broad support. This new strategy includes direct military engagement with the Burmese military despite lingering concerns that this act is hasty, ignores a long list of human rights abuses, and lacks conditions to ensure future reforms continue. It is time the Administration justifies this significant policy development and explains how its new approach will help foster reforms in an increasingly volatile on-the-ground situation. With a FY2014 budget request of $75 million for Burma, Congress must ensure proper measures are in place to assess the effectiveness of this growing U.S. assistance program.”

Witnesses

Ms. Judith Cefkin
Senior Advisor for Burma
Bureau of East Asia and the Pacific
U.S. Department of State

Mr. Vikram J. Singh
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs
U.S. Department of Defense

Mr. Gregory Beck
Deputy Assistant Administrator
Bureau for Asia
U.S. Agency for International Development

8. The United States, Russia, and the Middle East

Thursday, December 5 | 7:45am – 8:00pm

John’s Hopkins SAIS Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Avenue NW

REGISTER TO ATTEND

MORNING SESSIONS:

7:45 a.m.  REGISTRATION OPENS
8:10 a.m  CONVERSATION WITH REP. MIKE ROGERS (R-MI),
Chairman House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence9:00 a.m  CONVERSATION WITH REP. CHRISTOPHER VAN HOLLEN (D-MD), Ranking Member, House Budget Committee10:00 a.m  THE UNITED STATES, RUSSIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Counselor and Trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Senior Research Professor of International Relations at SAIS
Fiona Hill, Director of the Brookings Institution Center on the United States and Europe
Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and Columnist for Al-Monitor
Margaret Warner, Senior Correspondent for PBS NewsHour (Moderator)AFTERNOON SESSIONS:3:00 p.m  THE SYRIAN REGIONAL CRISIS
Rania Abouzeid, Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Contributor to The New Yorker  and Al Jazeera America
Joshua Landis, Associate Professor and Director of the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Middle East Studies
Houssein Mousavian, Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University, former Iranian Diplomat and Contributing Writer to Al-Monitor
David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times (moderator)
4:30 p.m  ISRAEL’S NEW STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT
Warren Bass, Senior Editor of The Wall Street Journal (moderator)
Ben Caspit, Columnist for Al-Monitor Israel Pulse
Akiva Eldar, Columnist for Al-Monitor Israel Pulse
Shlomi Eldar, Columnist for Al-Monitor Israel Pulse6:00 p.m.  EVENING CONVERSATION WITH H.E. VITALY CHURKIN, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
Moderated by Andrew Parasiliti, Editor and CEO, Al-Monitor7:00 p.m.  RECEPTION
9. Can the US and China Build a New Model of Major Power Relations
Thursday, December 5 | 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Woodrow Wilson Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Sixth Floor

On December 4 and 5, the Kissinger Institute and the China Institute for International Studies will hold a groundbreaking dialog on U.S.-China relations.  In an effort to build relationships between, and gain the insights of, promising young leaders from both countries, the Kissinger Institute and the China Institute for International Studies are bringing together 16 fully bilingual experts from a variety of fields for an unconstrained and uninterpreted dialog on major issues in Sino-U.S. relations.  The U.S.-China Young Leaders Dialogue is developing a platform for new voices and constituencies in U.S.-China relations, with an eye toward finding new approaches to joint challenges.  At this public session of the off-the-record Dialogue, four conference participants will offer their views on prospects for a new model of major power relations.

Event Speakers List:
Vice President, China Institute of International Studies
Renmin University
Georgetown University
Center for American Progress
Robert Daly // Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States
10. Israel and Palestine: Crisis or Breakthrough
Friday, December 6 | 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Hosted by the Middle East Institute at SEIU Conference Room #1406, 1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Ori Nir of Americans for Peace now will hold a conversation with Akiva Eldar on the current situation in Israel and Palestine.

Akiva Eldar is a senior political columnist for Al-Monitor news service’s Israel Pulse. He was formerly a senior columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz and served as Haaretz’s US bureau chief and diplomatic correspondent in the 1980’s. His most recent book (with Idith Zertal), Lords of the Land, on the Jewish settlements, was a best-seller in Israel and has been translated into English, French, German and Arabic. In 2006, the Financial Times named him among the world’s most influential commentators. He received the annual “Search for Common Ground” award for Middle East journalism and the Peace through Media Award of the International Council for Press and Broadcasting. Eldar was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1945 and graduated from Hebrew University, where he majored in economics, political science and psychology.

Sidney Balman

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