The Institute for Chinese Studies, in partnership with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, presents:
CHINA Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections with Jonathan Pollack, Brookings Institution
"Chinese Peripheral Diplomacy in East Asia: Can Beijing Learn from Its Unforced Errors?"
Tuesday, October 18, 2016, 6:00 - 7:00 PM
Mershon Center, Room 120
1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43201
China’s rapid emergence as a global player and potential partner on many U.S. policy priorities has ensured that the Sino-American relationship will have a direct impact on the lives of nearly everyone in both countries. To help Americans better understand the complex U.S.-China relationship, the National Committee on U.S. China Relations is conducting the tenth annual CHINA Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections. The evening's program at The Ohio State University begins with Dr. Jonathan Pollack's lecture at 6:00 pm. Following the lecture is the National Committee for US-China Relations' live webcast discussion featuring former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, moderated by National Committee President Stephen Orlins.
Abstract: Chinese foreign policy in 2016 reveals sharp contradictions between Beijing’s aspirations for a heightened role in global governance and repeated evidence of maladroit, alienating behavior toward states along its periphery. China’s frequent invocations of “win win” cooperation contrast sharply with highly reactive and needlessly alienating behavior toward immediate neighbors in Northeast and Southeast Asia, frequently attributing its actions to a malign American “hidden hand.” Without reflecting upon and addressing these unforced errors, China could stimulate longer-term damage to its regional interests, reinforcing the desire among many neighboring states for a reaffirmation and enhancement of the US security role.
China is not wholly responsible for heightened political and military tensions along its periphery. But its inability to learn from its mistakes or reflect on some of the potential consequences highlight shortcomings in Chinese policy making that the leadership has thus far been unwilling to address. However, by examining some of the setbacks in Chinese diplomacy and the factors that explain them, the possibilities for more creative foreign policy can also be discerned. The pressing question is whether China will prove able to rectify its policy missteps that will prove detrimental to its longer term interests and to the prospects for peace and security along its periphery.
Bio: Jonathan D. Pollack is the Interim SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies and a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. Between 2012 and 2014, he served as director of the John L. Thornton China Center. Prior to joining Brookings in 2010, he was professor of Asian and Pacific Studies and chairman of the Strategic Research Department at the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. He previously worked at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California, where he served in various senior research and management positions, including chairman of the political science department, corporate research manager for international policy and senior advisor for international policy.
Dr. Pollack’s principal research interests include Chinese national security strategy; U.S.-China relations; U.S. strategy in Asia and the Pacific; Korean politics and foreign policy; Asian international politics; and nuclear weapons and international security. He received his master's and docterate in political science from the University of Michigan, and was a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard University. He has taught at Brandeis University, the Rand Graduate School of Policy Studies, University of California Los Angeles, and the Naval War College. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and an emeritus member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control, a standing committee of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Pollack has authored or edited over two dozen books and research monographs, and has contributed to numerous edited volumes and leading professional journals in the United States, Asia, and Europe on China’s international strategies, the political and security dynamics of the Korean Peninsula, East Asian international politics and U.S. foreign, and defense policies in Asia and the Pacific. His publications include: Strategic Surprise? U.S.-China Relations in the Early 21st Century (2004); Korea-The East Asian Pivot (2006); and Asia Eyes America: Regional Perspectives on U.S. Asia-Pacific Strategy in the 21st Century (2007). His latest book, No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, and International Security, was published in 2011 by Routledge for the International Institute for Strategic Studies; the Asan Institute of Policy Studies published a revised Korean language edition in 2012. His current research, to be published as Endangered Order: Revisionism and Strategic Risk in Northeast Asia, focuses on the strategic ambitions and fears of the leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea, and their consequences for the future regional order.
Affiliations:
Asian Affairs-An American Review, member, editorial board
China Security, member, editorial board
Council on Foreign Relations, member
Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, member
International Institute for Strategic Studies, member
Journal of Contemporary China, member, editorial board
Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, member, editorial board
National Committee on United States-China Relations, member
Co-Sponsor: Mershon Center for International Security Studies, O.S.U.
This event is sponsored in part by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant for The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.
