The Global Taiwan Institute is pleased to announce the second event in its Civil Society and Democracy series, funded by a grant from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
One of the most important initiatives of the Tsai Administration is the New Southbound Policy through which Taiwan intends to increase economic ties, technology exchanges, and people-to-people relations with Southeast Asian countries. Much attention has focused on the economic dimension of NSP, while much less attention has been devoted to Taiwan’s engagement with Southeast Asia’s civil society, or how a people-centered policy can be implemented. This panel will discuss Taiwan’s multifaceted engagement in Southeast Asia in the realms of education and exchange, environmental stewardship, and sustainable energy.
Doors will open at 11:30. A light lunch will be served, and the event will begin at 12:00. Kindly RSVP by July 24. Please direct questions or concerns to abell@globaltaiwan.org.
**Media: Please contact Anna Scott Bell at abell@globaltaiwan.org if you would like to bring additional crew members or equipment, so that we can be sure to accommodate you.
PANELISTS
Brian Eyler is the Director of Stimson’s Southeast Asia program. Eyler is an expert on transboundary issues in the Mekong region and specializes in China’s economic cooperation with Southeast Asia. He has spent more than 15 years living and working in China and over the last ten years has conducted extensive research with stakeholders in the Mekong region, leading numerous study tours through China and mainland Southeast Asia. Before coming to the Stimson Center, he served as the Director of the IES Kunming Center at Yunnan University and as a consultant to the UNDP Lancang-Mekong Economic Cooperation program in Kunming, Yunnan province. He holds a MA from the University of California, San Diego and a BA from Bucknell University. Brian is the co-founder of the influential website EastBySoutheast.com. His first book, The Last Days of the Mighty Mekong will be published by Zed Books in 2017.
Brian Harding is Director for East and Southeast Asia for the National Security and International Policy team at the Center for American Progress. In this role, he manages a range of projects focused on U.S. policy in the Asia-Pacific. From 2009 to 2013, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Policy) as country director for Asian and Pacific security affairs, where he managed defense relations with major U.S. partners in Southeast Asia and Oceania—including Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand—and advised senior Department of Defense leadership on Asia-Pacific regional strategy. Previously he worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he focused on Southeast Asia and Japan, the Eurasia Group and Monitor 360. Harding holds an M.A. in Asian studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University and a B.A. in history and Japanese studies from Middlebury College. He has studied at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, and was a Fulbright scholar in Indonesia.
Dr. Alan Hao Yang is Executive Director of Center for Southeast Asian Studies at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He is also Associate Professor with Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies and Associate Research Fellow of Institute of International Relations. He is also working for the secretariat of Taiwan Participatory Group to the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP Taiwan) as Executive Director since May 2014. In 2011, Dr. Yang was awarded SUSI Fellowship from the US Department of State and also beinig visiting professor of U.S. foreign policy at the Department of Political Science, University of Florida. His research interests cover international relations theory, ASEAN regionalism, border politics in Southeast Asia, and China-ASEAN relations with specific focus on the soft power politics of Confucius Institutes. He published over 50 journal articles either in Chinese or in English, including those in The Pacific Review, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Issues & Studies, Disaster Advances, China Brief, Journal of Global and Strategic Studies, Asia-Pacific Forum, Journal of Strategic and Security Studies and so on. Dr. Yang can be reached via alanhao@nccu.edu.tw.
The Civil Society and Democracy series will continue throughout the year and focus on various topics relating to Taiwan’s democracy and human rights. The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization and is the first national democracy assistance foundation to be established in Asia, and is devoted to strengthening democracy and human rights in Taiwan and abroad.