Asia and the World Roundtable Series
Director: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Adjunct Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia
March 2009 - Present
The Asia and the World roundtable series examines the global implications of the rise of Asian power. For a thousand years, Asia was the engine of the global economy, a locus of science and innovation, a center of ideas and intellectual ferment, and the nexus of global power. After a long hiatus, Asia's major powers have now reemerged on the global stage, but their interaction with one another, and with the United States, on important issues and challenges is unsettled and evolving. Speakers and participants analyze the reemergence of China and India as global players, the changing role of Japan on the international stage, and efforts to reshape the international architecture to accommodate the rise of China and India, in particular. Sessions also consider the ways in which greater involvement in the world, not just their immediate neighborhood, is changing the strategic, economic, and political calculations of major countries in East, Central, and South Asia. Meetings look at the tensions, opportunities, and constraints that will determine whether and how the United States can forge partnerships with major Asian powers on issues of global scope. Other sessions may examine timely issues that arise in Central Asia, such as connections to the international oil and gas market, international institutions, and the global economy.
Meetings
Roundtable Meeting
How Will Asian Donors Influence the Future of International Development?
Speakers: Nisha Biswal, Assistant Administrator for Asia, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Deborah Brautigam, Professor, American University School of International Service; Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute
Presider: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Adjunct Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia, Council on Foreign Relations
January 30, 2012
For decades, with Japan the notable exception, Asian countries were principally recipients of international development assistance. But several emerging Asian powers--including China, India, and South Korea--have now become donors to Africa, Central Asia, and elsewhere. This session of Evan Feigenbaum's "Asia and the World" roundtable series explored some of the ways in which aid from emerging Asian powers will influence assistance norms and practices, as well as the international system.
The roundtable featured two speakers: Nisha Biswal of USAID, whose presentation focused both on India, the Busan Development Forum, and U.S. outreach efforts to various emerging Asian donors; and Professor Deborah Brautigam of American University's School of International Service, whose presentation focused primarily on China but ranged beyond "development assistance" to discuss lending practices and project finance. The discussion touched upon emerging donors' challenges to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) foreign aid model, as well the various tools wielded by emerging donors for development assistance and project finance.
Roundtable Meeting
How Will Domestic Budget Constraints Affect U.S. Policy Options in Asia?
Speakers: Patrick M. Cronin, Senior Adviser and Senior Director, Asia-Pacific Security Program, Center for New American Security
Michael A. McDevitt, Senior Fellow, CNA Corporation
Presider: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Council on Foreign Relations
September 13, 2011
This session of Evan Feigenbaum's Asia and the World roundtable series explored how potential cuts in the Department of Defense and foreign assistance budgets might affect U.S. policy toward Asia.
The roundtable featured two speakers: (1) Retired Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, now of CNA Corporation, whose naval career spanned over 34 years; and (2) Patrick Cronin of the Center for New American Security, who drew insights from his experiences as assistant administrator for policy and program coordination with USAID. The discussion touched on whether fiscal dilemmas and tough budget choices would affect U.S. force structure in Asia and alliance burden-sharing, as well as the prospective impact on disaster relief and development projects.
Roundtable Meeting
How Do China's Energy Activities Affect Global Markets and Geopolitics?
Speakers: Edward C. Chow, Senior Fellow in Energy and National Security, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Erica S. Downs, Fellow in Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institution
Presider: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Asia, Council on Foreign Relations
February 11, 2011
This session of Evan Feigenbaum's "Asia and the World" roundtable series explored China's growing energy needs and the impact of Chinese energy activities on global markets, geopolitics, and U.S. interests.
The roundtable featured two speakers: (1) Edward Chow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who drew insights from his 30 years of industry experience, including as head of international external affairs for Chevron; and (2) Erica Downs of the Brookings Institution, a leading specialist on Chinese energy and mining sectors. The discussion covered issues from China's energy investments in Iran to trends in oil prices, exploring what the growing energy requirements of China's growth mean for U.S. interests around the globe.
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Roundtable Meeting
Will China and India Be Economic Superpowers?
Speaker: Raghav Bahl, Founder and Controlling Shareholder, India's Network 18
Presider: Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations
November 1, 2010
The guest speaker for this not-for-attribution roundtable meeting was Raghav Bahl. Known as "the Rupert Murdoch of India," Mr. Bahl is the founder, controlling shareholder and managing director of Network 18, India's largest television news and business network, which broadcasts content from CNN and CNBC and publishes Forbes India. Mr. Bahl and Sebastian Mallaby, the director of CFR's Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, discussed the Chinese and Indian economic models and the countries' potential as economic superpowers. Mr. Bahl argued that much of the world underestimates India's potential to rival China as an economic powerhouse.
Roundtable Meeting
A Conversation with Kapil Sibal
Speaker: Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India
Presider: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Council on Foreign Relations
June 1, 2010
Minister Sibal and Dr. Feigenbaum engaged with CFR members in a wide-ranging discussion of Indian human capital needs, recent government initiatives, the role that foreign institutions can play in developing the human capital India needs in the coming years, and the long-term complementarity between India's demographics and America's.
Minister Sibal is responsible for the Indian government's education agenda from primary through secondary and post-secondary education. He is tasked with a difficult problem: preparing a growing and ever-younger Indian population to enter the workforce so that the country's “demographic dividend” is truly a dividend and not a burden. India faces a growing talent gap as educational achievement fails to meet the needs of the marketplace. Minister Sibal discussed, among other topics, a host of new policies to allow foreign universities to offer degree courses in India, part of a foreign universities bill tabled in India's parliament in May 2010.
Roundtable Meeting
Does India Have a Foreign Policy?
Speaker: C. Raja Mohan, Library of Congress; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Presider: Evan A. Feigenbaum, Council on Foreign Relations
February 3, 2010
This lunch discussion featured C. Raja Mohan, one of India's leading strategists. India has moved beyond nonalignment but the country has not yet coalesced around an overarching strategic or diplomatic vision. New Delhi may ultimately settle on a strategy that is conducive to a more open and global partnership with the United States, but that is not assured. India's interests increasingly align with those of others at the new top table of international relations, the G20; but when the environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, argued in a leaked memo on climate policy that India should "not stick with G77 but be embedded in G20," he provoked a political firestorm in India.
Dr. Mohan offered his perspective on several questions: What will replace nonalignment as the guiding vision of Indian foreign policy, and what are the main points of debate in New Delhi? How much of a constraint is India's geography--namely, that it sits next door to Pakistan? On what issues are Indian interests inherently aligned with America's? And even when Indian and U.S. interests are aligned, what effect will politics and path dependence have on New Delhi's ability to act on those shared interests?
Roundtable Meeting
What Does the "Rise of Asia" Mean for the United States?
Speakers: Joseph S. Nye Jr., Distinguished Service Professor and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
J. Stapleton Roy, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Evan A. Feigenbaum, Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia, CFR
September 25, 2009
This luncheon meeting focused on two broad themes: (1) the dynamics that have led Japan, China, and, to some extent, India to acquire global interests and global reach, and (2) whether and how the United States needs to accommodate the rise of these three major Asian powers. Harvard's Joseph Nye and the Wilson Center's J. Stapleton Roy helped frame overarching issues at the core of the roundtable with their perspectives on several key questions: What strategic and economic trends have enabled the rise of China and India to global prominence? What does their emergence as world powers mean for Japan, which has long been the only Asian power with global reach? What does the emergence of big Asian powers mean for American primacy? And what demands will Asians make of the rest of the world, including the United States, as they seek a global profile consistent with their economic weight?
Roundtable Meeting
Is India Just a South Asian Power?
Speakers: Sanjaya Baru, Consulting Editor, The Business Standard
Evan A. Feigenbaum, Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia, CFR
September 23, 2009
This breakfast discussion on India's global role featured Sanjaya Baru, journalist, author, editor, and former media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India is the dominant power in South Asia but its government has pursued links, both strategic and economic, with East Asia and the Persian Gulf. India has an aid program in Africa. And corporate India has gone global, sending investment abroad and acquiring leading brands. Sanjaya Baru offered his perspective on several questions: (1) To what extent do recent policies and trends make India a power in Asia writ large, rather than just South Asia? (2) Is India acquiring global reach, and has Indian foreign policy thinking caught up to India's emerging capabilities? (3) How should the United States factor India into its thinking about regions beyond South Asia? And (4) What are the sources of, and limits to, India's ability to exercise economic, diplomatic, and strategic influence beyond South Asia?
