PANEL DISCUSSION ON "THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA"

Event Information: PANEL DISCUSSION ON "THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA" WITH KISHORE MAHBUBANI, LARRY DIAMOND, DOUG BEREUTER, AND DON EMMERSON

Thursday, February 21, 2008
5:30 pm Reception/Book Signings
6:00-7:30 pm Program

Julia Morgan Ballroom
The Asia Foundation
465 California Street, 15th Floor
San Francisco, CA

$10 Asia Society /Co-sponsor Members/Students
$15 Non-members

This program, which opens the new Asia Society program series The Future of Democracy in Asia, will bring together some of the world's leading experts on Southeast Asia and democracy to consider the critical questions that hang over the region.

Has the American model of democracy become tarnished in Asia, and is the Chinese model of authoritarian capitalism of growing appeal and significance? What are the dimensions and implications of ongoing Islamization for Southeast Asia? What are the prospects for cleaning up notoriously corrupt party politics?

Will the military ever be driven out of politics in Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, and elsewhere? Is the American-led "war on terror" helping to stabilize politics in the region, or is it exacerbating already serious problems? What do these developments mean for U.S. foreign policy and American influence in Asia?

Speakers:

Kishore Mahbubani, one of Asia's leading public intellectuals, is the author of the forthcoming book The New Asian Hemisphere: the Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, Can Asians Think? as well as Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World, and numerous other publications.

Now the Dean and Professor of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, he served for 33 years as a diplomat for Singapore.

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, and the newly released The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World.

Donald K. Emmerson has written or edited more than a dozen books and monographs on Southeast Asian politics, including the forthcoming Hard Choices: Security, Democracy, and Regionalism in Southeast Asia, and Indonesia beyond Suharto. His latest article is "Challenging ASEAN" (Jan. 2008). He is a senior fellow at Stanford University, where he also heads the Southeast Asia Forum.

Douglas Bereuter (moderator) is president of The Asia Foundation. He assumed his current position after resigning from the U.S. Congress after 26 years of service, where he was one of that body's leading authorities on Asian affairs and international relations.

Co-sponsored by:
The Asia Foundation,
Business Executives for National Security,
East-West Center Alumni Association of Northern California,
the South Asian Journalists Association, Stacey's Books,
Stanford University Southeast Asia Forum,
U.C. Berkeley Center for Southeast Asian Studies,
USF Center for the Pacific Rim, and
the World Affairs Council of Northern California