Tuesday, July 22, 2025 from 10:30AM – 12:00PM (ET)
Webcast
Event Description:
The Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion titled “Taiwan’s Global Impact: Reflections from TUPP 2025 Fellows.”
Now in the second year of the Lai Administration, Taiwan continues to navigate a complex regional and global landscape shaped by geopolitical tensions, disinformation threats, and economic uncertainty. As Taiwan works to strengthen its democratic institutions and global partnerships, building long-term partnerships remains a central policy priority. Featuring perspectives from 2025 participants in the Taiwan-US-Europe Policy Program and drawing upon each participant’s unique background expertise, this panel will include discussions of how their experiences in Taiwan have impacted their work, and the ways in which Taiwan can strengthen its resiliency against authoritarian pressure.
The Taiwan-US-Europe Policy Program (TUPP) is a groundbreaking two-week program that was launched in 2017. Initially designed to enhance the understanding of Taiwan among future US policy leaders, the program was expanded to include future European policy leaders starting in 2022. TUPP consists of two consecutive components: seminars in Washington, DC and a research trip to Taiwan. Organized by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) and co-funded by GTI, the Henry Luce Foundation and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, TUPP provides a unique opportunity for the emerging leaders from the United States and Europe to gain the necessary personal experiences in Taiwan that will enable them to appreciate Taiwan’s perspectives on cross-Strait matters, Taiwan’s role in the world, and the importance of US-Taiwan relations.
The panelists include: Johanna M. Costigan (Paulson Institute), Thomas König (German Chamber of Industry & Commerce), Julia Mykhailiuk (FP21), and Kayla Orta (Atlantic Council). This event will be moderated by GMF’s Managing Director Bonnie Glaser and GTI Programs Coordinator Ben Levine.
The Panelists:
Johanna M. Costigan is Associate Director of Research at the Paulson Institute. In this role, she supports the Executive Director in diversifying PI’s efforts across biodiversity, green finance, and conservation. She also manages engagement initiatives and research projects, including working with external partners and counterparts, and collaborates with the Communications Department to regularly disseminate research and global policy developments germane to PI’s areas of interest.
Thomas König is Director China at the German Chamber of Industry & Commerce (DIHK), co-author of the book, How to manage China, (now in its third edition) and China – Mastering business and everyday life. He is concurrently a McCloy Fellow on Global Trends at the American Council on Germany and has a teaching position at the TU Berlin in the winter semester 2024/2025. König has many years of experience in China, including at the world’s largest German Chamber of Commerce (AHK) in Shanghai, which serves over 1,600 member companies. He studied at Yale, LSE and SOAS with an English- Chinese semester at Peking University, and worked at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London and Paris. König developed training programs for future Chinese UN diplomats the United Nations Institute of Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva. König was voted one of the top 100 decision-makers in German-Chinese relations by Table.Media Professional Briefings in 2024.
Julia Mykhailiuk is a specialist in international AI governance, as well as a research fellow with focused expertise in emerging technologies, democracy, and foreign policy. Between Brussels and Washington, DC, Julia collaborates with leading research institutions, government agencies, and think tanks to develop effective AI governance frameworks that prioritize transparency, accountability, and democratic integrity. Her previous engagements include work at the European Commission Directorate for Research and Innovation, AI governance and safety fellowships at leading institutions across Europe and the US, as well as multiple volunteering projects for the UN agencies in Ukraine and Tanzania.
Kayla Orta is a nonresident fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Orta is also a nonresident fellow at the European Centre for North Korean Studies. As a former US Department of Defense National Security Education Program Boren scholar, her regional expertise lies in US-Republic of Korea (ROK) ties, North Korea, and US-ROK-Japan trilateral relations at the intersection of security and technology policy. Her work focuses on nonproliferation, nuclear deterrence, and civil nuclear energy markets.
The Moderators:
Bonnie S. Glaser is director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was previously senior advisor for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Glaser is concomitantly a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. For more than three decades, Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy. From 2008 to mid-2015, she was a senior advisor with the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies, and from 2003 to 2008, she was a senior associate in the CSIS International Security Program. Prior to joining CSIS, she served as a consultant for various US government offices, including the Departments of Defense and State. Glaser has published widely in academic and policy journals, including the Washington Quarterly, China Quarterly, Asian Survey, International Security, Contemporary Southeast Asia, American Foreign Policy Interests, Far Eastern Economic Review, and Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, as well as in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and International Herald Tribune and in various edited volumes on Asian security. She is also a regular contributor to the Pacific Forum web journal Comparative Connections. She is currently a board member of the US Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She served as a member of the Department of Defense’s Defense Policy Board China Panel in 1997. Glaser received her BA in political science from Boston University and her MA with concentrations in international economics and Chinese studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Ben Levine is a programs coordinator at the Global Taiwan Institute. He graduated from George Washington University with a MA in Chinese Language and Culture. Ben received his BA from Boston University majoring in international relations, with a functional concentration in international economics and a regional concentration in Asia. Previously, Ben was awarded a fellowship from the Taiwan Education and Research Program at GWU to research Taiwanese defense policy and hypothetical US responses. He also was awarded a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship in August 2022, allowing him to spend 9 months in Taipei at National Chengchi University studying Mandarin. His research focuses on Taiwan’s defense policy and various social and economic issues in Taiwan.