Asan Plenum 2013

“New World Disorder”

Hahm Chaibong
President, The Asan Institute for Policy Studies

안녕하십니까? 아산정책연구원의 함재봉입니다.
제가 영어로 말씀드리도록 하겠습니다.

Good morning everyone. Welcome to the 2013 Asan Plenum. My name is Hahm Chaibong, the president of the Institute. It’s great to have all of you here today. Sorry for ruining the morning with this video about the disorder that we face currently in the world. When we decided on this title a year ago, actually, the world seemed pretty disorderly then. I am sorry to say that it doesn’t look all that much orderly a year hence, and again, I think the world bore out our belief that we are in very difficult times. I think the sense of disorder, you will appreciate—especially for those of us living in this part of the world—has only increased in recent days and years. So I really do hope and believe with the incredible experience and brainpower gathered here today and tomorrow, that we will be able to seriously tackle some of these issues and perhaps come up with some creative solutions for the disorder that is bedeviling us for such a long time now.

Now I have the honor and privilege of introducing the speaker for the opening remarks. He is none other than Dr. Chung Mong Joon, the founder of our Institute and the honorary chairman of the Institute as well. For those of you who know him well, I will just go through some of his achievements. He is a seven-term member of the National Assembly. That makes him the most senior member—I hate to use that word, it has many implications, but again, not age-wise, but he is the most often elected member of the National Assembly as a seven-term assemblyman. He is a student of international politics; he has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins SAIS. We have some SAIS mafia members here today as I understand. He was the vice president of FIFA for 17 years. He brought the World Cup to South Korea, the 2002 World Cup. But, as I also like to say, his greatest achievement is establishing the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. I am eternally grateful to him for that. So, would you please join me in warmly welcoming Dr. Chung Mong Joon.