Fpri Events

Existential enemies have a way of uniting a country. Could America's current state of division be related to the absence of such an enemy? In this talk, FPRI Senior Fellow Dominic Tierney takes an unorthodox look at America and the world, placing our current challenges in a larger historical perspective

In cooperation with UPenn's Center for East Asian Studies, the Foreign Policy Research Institute hosted a briefing on the situation in North Korea with Lt. General (Ret) In Bum Chun. Chun served in the South Korean military for over 30 years, rising to several key posts, among them Deputy Chief of Staff for ROK/US Combined Forces Command, Senior Member of the United Nations Military Armistice Commission, Commander of the ROK Special Warfare Command, and Deputy Commander for the First ROK Army. He retired from the military in 2016 and is now a fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS).

The Middle East is rife with conflict. States appear to be breaking down, and extremism is on the march. Amid the chaos, how is one to define the U.S. national interest, and how to secure it? Trudy Rubin, the authoritative voice of the Philadelphia Inquirer, brings her years of reporting from the region to bear on these questions and more.

The Kremlin has managed to deploy power so ruthlessly at home and abroad in part because of its surprising ability to muster economic resources. In this talk, Miller analyzes the secret to Putin’s success.

In the past, concerns raised by China's bad debt bubbles have triggered no alarms, in large part, because of its massive foreign exchange reserves and rapidly growing economy. Now, China's debts are higher than ever, while its reserves have fallen by $1 trillion and its economy slows. How could these major economic changes impact China's foreign policy choices? Are their implications already being felt today? And if so, what do they mean for China's international behavior -- will they turn the country inward or encourage it to become even more assertive?Joining us to place these issues in the larger geopolitical perspective to assess China's future direction is Felix Chang. Chang is a Senior Fellow of FPRI and the Chief Strategy Officer of DecisionQ.

Confidence in the future of democracy has been shaken by the authoritarian resurgence of the past decade, and some now argue that it is not realistic for the US to continue to champion democracy abroad. Does Democracy Matter? provides the conclusions of eleven scholars from widely different backgrounds who ask whether and, if so, how the US should support democracy beyond its own borders. Although all of the authors agree that American strategic interests are better served in the long run by the consolidation and spread of democracy abroad, they differ sharply on how democracy support should fit into the overall US national security calculus, and on where and how, if at all, such assistance should be delivered.On June 19, two of the book’s chapter authors will present their differing perspectives in the context of a new administration that seeks to “make America great again.” They will discuss their views on the impact that the health of democracy abroad has not only on our global position, but also on Ameri

This June we commemorate the Six Day War, a transformative event in the history of the Middle East that ended in Israel’s conquest of an area three-and-a-half times the size of Israel itself. Its effects were felt then and are still felt throughout the region, if not the world. In this talk, Neri Zilber considers the impact of the war on Israel’s domestic politics and how Israel’s political parties today are responding both to the consequences of the war and to the challenges Israel faces today. Neri Zilber is a journalist and researcher on Middle Eastern politics and culture. His work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and the Washington Post, among others. In addition to reportage, Neri consults for the private sector on political and economic risk in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and the broader Eastern Mediterranean. He was raised and educated in Israel, Singapore, Spain, and the United States.

Born as small appendages to the conventional armies of World War II, the Special Operations Forces have grown into a behemoth of 70,000 troops, including Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, Air Force Night Stalkers, Special Operations Marines, Rangers, and Delta Force. Moyar’s book is the first comprehensive history of these special warriors and their daring missions. Moyar is author of several critically acclaimed books, among them, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq (Yale University Press, 2009). His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications.

Iraq has been at the center of American foreign policy for over a quarter-century. Will it continue to dominate our attention and resources in the coming years as well? If so, how? Just as importantly, why? To answer these questions, we bring together two experts who have had some of the most unique and consequential experiences in Iraq over the past two decades.

As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I, we are pleased to feature Michael Neiberg on his latest book, analyzing how Americans moved from ambivalence toward the war in Europe to belligerence and beyond. He examines the social, political, and financial forces at work and the role of public opinion and popular culture, showing how all these factors contributed to the pivot toward war. His most recent books include: Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe (Basic Books, 2015); The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 (Basic Books, 2012); and Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of War in 1914 (Harvard University Press, 2011).

Once again, ​China is ​experiencing a period of ​major transition. ​After three decades of dramatic economic ​growth and reforms​, China faces significant economic and political challenges at home while President Xi Jinping ​looks to refashion​ China’s place in the world. ​China is taking a more proactive approach to trade and related international economic affairs, a more vigorous approach to security matters, and a more focused engagement on international cultural and educational affairs. Across these diverse areas, China’s capacity—and desire—to influence events and outcomes have risen markedly. ​What have the results been to date, and what does China's future trajectory appear to be? To explore these questions, we are pleased to feature two FPRI Fellows, Jacques deLisle and Avery Goldstein.Jacques deLisle is the Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science, and Deputy Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania, and Director of the Asi

This is Panel 2 of the FPRI Asia Program Conference on US Policy toward East Asia under the Trump Administration. This panel featured Michael R. Auslin (American Enterprise Institute), Shihoko Goto (Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars), Gilbert Rozman (FPRI and Princeton University), and was moderated by Jacques deLisle (FPRI and University of Pennsylvania).

This is Panel 1 of the FPRI Asia Program Conference on US Policy toward East Asia under the Trump Administration. This panel featured Jacques deLisle (FPRI and University of Pennsylvania), Scott Mulhauser (Georgetown University), and June Teufel Dreyer (FPRI and University of Miami), and was moderated by William Burke-White (Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania).

As of April 10, 2017, our 45th President, Donald J. Trump will have completed his first 100 days in office. What have these crucial days revealed about the Trump administration? What do they indicate for the next 1361 (or even the next 2822) days? Joining us to discuss these questions and more is FPRI's Ronald J. Granieri, the host of FPRI's popular monthly program, Geopolitics with Granieri. Granieri is the Executive Director of FPRI’s Center for the Study of America and the West, Editor of the Center’s E-publication The American Review of Books, Blogs, and Bull, and the Director of Research at the University of Pennsylvania's Lauder Institute.

Putin's government is usually associated with incompetence and corruption. Yet, the Kremlin has managed to deploy power so ruthlessly at home and abroad in part because of its ability to muster economic resources. Miller traces the economic policies that underwrite Russia's expansive foreign policy and Putin's continued control over the country's political system.Joining us to discuss Putinomics is Chris Miller. Miller is a Fellow at FPRI’s Eurasia Program where he serves as the editor of the Baltic Bulletin. He is also the Associate Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University. His is the author of The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR.

How to understand a world where Russia threatens to break up the post-Cold War order in Europe, while China lays the groundwork for a new order in East Asia, and the entire Middle East is riven with conflict —this is the assignment we’ve given to one of the world’s great geopolitical thinkers, Jeremy Black, author of over 100 books on military and diplomatic history.

Slumping economies, political and social turmoil, environmental degradation, demographic crisis, and territorial disputes means that the stability is not to be taken for granted, or so argues AEI scholar Michael Auslin in his new book. This is a book for industry and investors, politicians and scholars, and anyone who wants to understand the future of Asia. A former professor of history at Yale, Auslin is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Forbes and a frequent commentator in U.S. and foreign media.

In this talk, FPRI's resident technology geek, Lawrence Husick, will examine the history of U.S. patent law, how it contributed to America's technological edge, and how the recent erosion of patent law places that that technological edge in jeopardy. He will conclude with a discussion of the implications for America's geopolitical position in the world. Husick is Co-Chairman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Center for the Study of Terrorism where he concentrates on the study of terrorist tactics and counterterrorism strategies, with a particular focus on technology leverage as a defining characteristic of the modern terrorist. He is also co-director of the FPRI Wachman Center’s Program on Teaching Innovation and a faculty member at the Whiting Graduate School of Engineering and the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Graduate Biotechnology Program of the Johns Hopkins University.

General Durrani was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1961 and retired as a major general in 1998. He served as Pakistan's Ambassador to the US from 2006 to 2008, and then as National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2008 to 2009. He continues to be active in working toward peace in South Asia as a member of a group of high-level Pakistanis and Indians. He is author of "India and Pakistan: The Cost of Conflict and the Benefits of Peace" (Johns Hopkins University, 2000).

Drawing on two-and-a-half years of closely watching Russia's online influence operations and monitoring some 7,000 social media accounts, Clint Watts tells the disturbing story of the Kremlin's army of trolls and their role in spreading disinformation to undermine trust in Western electoral systems. It was while investigating jihadis online that Watts came across the online activities of Russian trolls.Watts is a Robert A. Fox Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Program on the Middle East as well as a Senior Fellow with its Program on National Security. He serves as the President of Miburo Solutions, Inc. Watts’ research focuses on analyzing transnational threat groups operating in local environments on a global scale. Before starting Miburo Solutions, he served as a U.S. Army infantry officer, a FBI Special Agent on a Joint Terrorism Task Force, and as the Executive Officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC).