Thursday, March 21, 2013

Recent reports of cyber attacks against U.S business and government websites capture one troubling aspect of the foreign policy challenge the United States must address in its relations with China. Lieberthal, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution, will address this critical issue.

Lieberthal was a professor at the University of Michigan from 1983 to 2009 before joining Brookings. He also served as special assistant to the President and senior director for Asia on the National Security Council under President Clinton from August 1998 to October 2000. Lieberthal holds a master's degree and Ph.D from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.

His latest book, "Bending History: Barack Obama's Foreign Policy," co-authored with Martin Indyk and Michael O'Hanlon, was released in March 2012. The book asks how well President Obama has carried out his duties as U.S. commander-in-chief, top diplomat and grand strategist. Some conservatives have argued that he is a naive apologist trying to quash "American exceptionalism" while many liberals see him as an antidote to George Bush's "unilateralist militarism." "Bending History" argues that Obama is more of a foreign policy pragmatist whose approach is typified by thoroughness, teamwork, and flexibility. Lieberthal will bring many of these perspectives to bear in his assessment of President Obama's China policy and the challenges to U.S. foreign policy over the next four years.

CGSR Seminar: China's Nuclear Strategy
Presented by Elbridge Colby and Abraham Denmark

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Elbridge A. Colby and Abraham M. Denmark, co-chairs of the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) Working Group on U.S.-China Nuclear Issues will hold a seminar hosted by LLNL's Center for Global Security Research (CGSR). Colby and Denmark will discuss their recent report "Nuclear Weapons and U.S. China Relations: A Way Forward."

According to CSIS, "This report addresses the increasingly important set of issues surrounding the nuclear forces of the United States and China. It focuses on a series of policy and posture recommendations for the United States, but it does so with an eye toward U.S. allies in the region and Chinese audiences. The report also includes two appendixes‹one detailing the Working Group's assessment of China's nuclear strategy, policy, decision making, posture, and capabilities, and one summarizing the Working Group's discussions in Beijing in September 2012."

Dr. Ken Lieberthal of the Brookings Institution will join the discussion. The full report can be downloaded from http://csis.org/publication/nuclear-weapons-and-us-china-relations.