Transcript
STROBE TALBOTT: Thank you very much, Chih-cheng. Let me just add a few words by way of echoing and perhaps amplifying what Chih-cheng said. First of all, thank you for the wake-up call. I do not think any more will be required for the next day or so. But staying with your metaphor, I have no doubt whatsoever that on an intellectual Richter scale, today's conference will hit at least 7.0.
Let me just add a word or two about why my colleagues from the Brookings Institution, and particularly the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, are so glad to be here. In part, it is because of the history and mission of the Brookings Institution, which goes back nearly 90 years. Brookings has always been dedicated to constructive deliberation and debate and also objective, scholarly, wide-ranging, fact-based analysis of major public policy issues.
There is no doubt that this conference is very much in that spirit. This conference is also in the spirit of something else that we believe in very much at Brookings, and that is to try to make our institution more international and indeed more global.H'
In recent years, we have increasingly dedicated ourselves to working in collaboration with colleagues and counterpart organizations around the world, and we are very fortunate in having a partner here in Taipei in the Institute for National Policy Research, which is, as you all know, one of the first independent think tanks to emerge in Taiwan after the political liberalization of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Our organizations have been collaborating ever since, and Chih-cheng and I have been conspiring off on the margins of this conference over the last couple of days to think of ways that we can broaden our collaboration in the future.
As Chih-cheng has said, this conference is going to focus on the intersection and indeed the interaction of, on the one hand, factors of domestic politics and public opinion; and on the other hand, the imperatives of regional security.
I think that that in itself is worth noting as a topic that would be appropriate in this region of the world. It was not always the case that that would have been a terribly relevant topic, because 20 or 30 years ago, quite frankly, public opinion did not count for very much in many countries in this region. But the last decades have seen a dramatic and largely positive change. What had been authoritarian regimes are in many cases now vibrant democracies, and that development has altered forever the challenge that political leaders have in managing national security.
It is against that backdrop that INPR and Brookings have assembled what I think is an outstanding group of experts to explore the interplay of democracy, nationalism and security in East Asia.
To begin our discussion, we are privileged to have as our keynote speaker Michael Kau. I think that in three respects Dr. Kau epitomizes the mission and the values represented by think tanks like Brookings and INPR. First, he is a true scholar. He is a graduate of the National Taiwan University. He has a doctorate from Cornell. He was on the faculty of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and he is the author of a number of important books on Taiwan and China.
conference agenda (PDF-201kb)
introduction and panel 1, Security Environment in East Asia: Worsening or Improving? (PDF-237kb)
luncheon speech by Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (PDF-73kb)
panel 2, Asian Nationalism and Implications for the Region (PDF-242kb)
panel 3, Democratic Development in Taiwan and its Implications for Regional Security (PDF-134kb)