Asan Plenum

Session: Plenary Session 1
Date/Time: April 26, 2016 / 10:30-12:00

Moderator:
Hahm Chaibong, The Asan Institute for Policy Studies

Speakers:
Han Sung Joo, Korea University
Gilbert Rozman, The Asan Forum
Tanaka Akihiko, University of Tokyo
Zhu Chenghu, National Defense University, People’s Liberation Army, China

Panel Description:
The world has experienced remarkable stability since the end of the Cold War. Despite the 9/11 terror attacks, the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the 2008 global financial crisis, the international community has shown extraordinary resilience. With lingering low economic growth rates and growing security threats around the world, the international system is increasingly marked by conflict, chaos, and anarchy–conditions that international theory characterizes as the “normal” interaction between nation states. In other words, we have entered an era of the “New Normal.” How can the international community overcome the challenges of this “New Normal” era? What is the role of global and regional institutions in this “new” environment? How will multilateral or bilateral alliances adjust and calibrate? Will the major powers step up to take newer responsibilities and offer bolder leadership?
 

About Experts

Hahm Chaibong
Hahm Chaibong

President

Dr. HAHM Chaibong is the president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Previously, he was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, professor in the School of International Relations and the Department of Political Science as well as the director of the Korean Studies Institute at the University of Southern California, Director (D-1) of the Division of Social Sciences Research & Policy at UNESCO in Paris, and a professor in the Department of Political Science at Yonsei University. Dr. Hahm is the author of numerous books and articles, including “China’s Future is South Korea’s Present,” Foreign Affairs, (Sep/Oct 2018), Hanguk Saram Mandeulgi (Becoming Korean), Vols. I, II, (Asan Academy, 2017), “Keeping Northeast Asia ‘Abnormal’: Origins of the Liberal International Order in Northeast Asia and the New Cold War,” Asan Forum (Sep., 2017), “South Korea’s Miraculous Democracy,” Journal of Democracy (Jul., 2008), “The Two South Koreas: A House Divided,” The Washington Quarterly (Jun., 2005), and Confucianism for the Modern World (co-edited with Daniel A. Bell, Cambridge University Press, 2003).