Feb 14: Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief and Implications for Taiwan

Please join the Global Taiwan Institute as we host a panel titled, “Lessons Learned in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and Implications for Taiwan,” a discussion on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) with a focus on past precedence of cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, plans for the future, and implications for Taiwan.

The year 2018 marks the seventh anniversary of the devastating Japan tsunami in March 2011, and also the ninth anniversary of Typhoon Morakot in August 2009, which left 673 Taiwanese people dead, nearly 2,000 homes destroyed, and an estimated US $3.3 billion in damages. The United States demonstrated that it is a reliable partner of Taiwan by delivering plastic sheeting for temporary housing, excavators and earthmoving equipment. While Japan sustained greater damages from the natural disaster than Taiwan, the United States’ response to Japan was also enhanced by the US-Japan formal alliance and at a larger scope than the United States with Taiwan. Yet there are lessons to be learned for all sides, especially prospects for heightened US-Taiwan coordination for future disasters; as well as the possibility of multilateral rather than simply bilateral disaster relief cooperation in the future.  To discuss these issues, we are pleased to welcome experts in the field of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, bilateral cooperation, and the peaceful use of military assets in the Indo-Pacific region, Andrew Shapiro (Beacon Global Strategies), Bud Cole (CNA), Yuki Tatsumi (Stimson), and Leo Bosner (GTI scholar, retired FEMA).

Doors will open at 11:30. A light lunch will be served, and the event will begin at 12:00. Kindly RSVP by February 12. Please direct questions or concerns to dan@globaltaiwan.org.
**Media: Please contact David An at dan@globaltaiwan.org if you would like to bring additional crew members or equipment, so that we can be sure to accommodate you.

PANELISTS

Leo Bosner was an Emergency Management Specialist for 29 years with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Washington, D.C. After retiring from FEMA in 2008, Leo was an independent consultant and lecturer in the U.S. and Japan, and was in Tokyo on the day of the March, 2011 disaster. In 2012, Leo returned to Japan on a six-week research fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to study the response to the March, 2011 disaster. His findings from that study have been published in English and Japanese, as have other of his papers and articles. Since 2016, Leo has served as Disaster Risk Reduction Officer for Place to Grow, a Tokyo-based NGO that assists with the recovery of disaster-stricken communities in Japan. In 2017, Leo was awarded a scholarship by the Global Taiwan Institute to conduct a 1-year study of Taiwan’s emergency management system. That study is now under way and is due to be completed by this October.

Bernard D. Cole served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1995, including tours as Commanding Officer, USS RATHBURNE and Commander, Destroyer Squadron 35. He also served with the 3rd Marine Division in Vietnam, June 1967-July1968. Cole was a Professor of Maritime Strategy at the National War College from 1995 to 2015. He currently works with the China team at CNA and as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. Cole has written many articles, book chapters, and eight books, most recently China’s Quest for Great Power: Ships, Oil, and Foreign Policy, published in November 2016. He was named U.S. Naval Institute Press “Author of the Year” for 2014.

Andrew Shapiro is a Founder and Managing Director of Beacon Global Strategies LLC. From 2009-2013, Mr. Shapiro served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs where he revitalized and deepened political-military partnerships at home and abroad, and promoted record setting foreign military sales creating thousands of jobs in the United States while contributing to the security of key U.S. partners. As the longest serving Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Mr. Shapiro made key contributions to the U.S. pivot to Asia by leading an increase in military sales and transfers to U.S. partners including Taiwan, Japan, and Indonesia. While leading the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Mr. Shapiro undertook the first major reform of export control efforts in twenty years. He also managed more than $6 billion in security assistance funds and drove the development of the innovative Global Security Contingency Fund. Before being confirmed as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Shapiro served as a Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also served as a member of the Obama-Biden Department of Defense Agency Review Transition Team. Previously, Mr. Shapiro was counsel to the Justice Department’s International Competition Policy Advisory Committee, and was an associate at the Washington, DC law firm Covington & Burling.

Yuki Tatsumi is Director of the Japan Program and a Senior Associate of the East Asia Program at the Stimson Center. Before joining Stimson, Tatsumi worked as a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and as the special assistant for political affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington. Tatsumi’s most recent publications include Lost in Translation? U.S. Defense Innovation and Northeast Asia (Stimson Center, 2017) and Peacebuilding and Japan: Views from the Next Generation (Stimson Center, 2017). To the topic of the public seminar discussion today, she wrote a publication in 2012 entitled: “Great Eastern Japan Earthquake: ‘Lessons Learned’ for Japanese Defense Policy.” In September 2006 Tatsumi testified before the House Committee on International Relations. She is a recipient of the 2009 Yasuhiro Nakasone Incentive Award.