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Asia Initiative Lecture SeriesThe Asia Initiative Lecture Series (AILS) was founded in 2019 by Jihyun (Amanda) Won at The Institute of World Politics. The objective of this lecture series is to broaden the scope and discussion on a range of intelligence, foreign policy, and security issues attendant to the Asian geopolitical, socio-economic, and cultural spheres of influence.

2023 Lectures

The Free World’s Response to a Sino-Taiwanese War

Monday, April 3, 2023
with LCDR Chris D. Glass

The U.S.-Philippines Alliance

Thursday, March 9, 2023
with Amb. Jose Manuel G. Romualdez
Watch the video of the March 9, 2023 lecture

The North Korean Threat and Allied Policy Options

Thursday, February 16, 2023
with Mr. Bruce Klingner
Watch the video of the February 16, 2023 lecture

2022 Lectures

China is Preparing for War, America is Not

Tuesday, November 29, 2022
with Dr. Gordon C. Chang
Watch the video of the November 29, 2022 lecture

The Evolution of North Korean Espionage

Thursday, October 13, 2022
with Dr. Amanda Won, IWP Doctoral Graduate (’22)
Watch the video of the October 13, 2022 lecture

Beyond Nuclear Crisis: New and Long-Term Strategy for the Korean Peninsula

Thursday, July 7, 2022
with Col. David Maxwell (ret.), Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)
Watch the video of the July 7, 2022 lecture

North Korea: The Continuous and Growing Threat

Wednesday, March 30, 2022
with Prof. John Sano, former Chief of the East Asia Division in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations

Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow The World

a webinar with Dr. Mark Clifford, author of Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: What China’s Crackdown Reveals About Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere and the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong.
February 24, 2022

2021 Lectures

The UN’s Human Security Challenge: The Plight of North Korean Refugees in China

Monday, November 15th, 2021
with Amb. Jung-Hoon Lee, Dean and Professor of International Relations at the Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University

Security Situation on The Korean Peninsula

Tuesday, September 21st, 2021
with Col. David S. Maxwell, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)

Japanese Foreign Intelligence and Grand Strategy

Tuesday, June 1st, 2021
with Dr. Brad Williams, an associate professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong

Fear and Insecurity: Addressing North Korean Threat Perceptions

Wednesday, April 14th, 2021
with Dr. Patrick M. Cronin, the Asia-Pacific Security Chair at Hudson Institute

The Biden Administration Faces Growing North Korean Threat

Tuesday, March 30th, 2021
with Mr. Bruce Klingner specializes in Korean and Japanese affairs as the senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.

Seventy Years of Chinese Strategic Intelligence Threats

Wednesday, March 10th, 2021
with Prof. Kenneth E. deGraffenreid has over 40 years of leadership responsibility as a senior national level expert, practitioner, writer, and teacher.

The Return of Great Power Rivalry

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021
with Dr. Matthew Kroenig, deputy director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council and the director of the Center’s Global Strategy Initiative

The ROK/US Alliance and the Threat

Wednesday, February 24th, 2021
with General John H. Tilelli, Jr. US Army (Ret)

Communist China’s Modern Intelligence Reforms

Wednesday, February 10th, 2021
with Dr. Matthew Brazil, researcher and writer

2020 Lectures

Philippines-U.S. Alliance in a Post-Pandemic World

Thursday, November 12, 2020
with Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines to the United States of America

An Assessment of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy

October 27, 2020
with Dr. Michael Jonathan Green, senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and director of Asian Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University

Chinese Communist Espionage

October 7, 2020
with Matt Brazil, non-resident Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation

Human Rights Atrocities in North Korea

Monday, September 14, 2020
with Amb. Jung-Hoon Lee, Dean and Professor of International Relations at the Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University

The North Korean Intelligence Service’s (NKIS) Espionage and Strategy

March 4, 2020
with Dr. Kim Dong-sik, the former highest-ranking North Korean Intelligence Service (NKIS) spy who ever defected to South Korea, and who is currently a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) in Seoul, South Korea

2019 Lectures

Lessons Learned: The Inter-Korean Dialogue and The Hanoi Summit

October 15-16, 2019
with a lecture on “Lessons Learned: The Inter-Korean Dialogue and Path Forward” with Gen. Kim Dong-shin, South Korea Minister of National Defense (ret.)
and a panel on “US-NK Relations: The Post-Hanoi Summit” with Gen. Kim Dong-shin, former ROK Minister of National Defense; Gen. John Tilelli, Jr, former Commander in Chief, United Nations Command, ROK; Dr. Victor Cha, Senior Adviser and holder of the Korea Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Mr. Bruce Klingner, Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia, The Heritage Foundation; and Prof. John Sano, IWP Professor, and former Deputy Director, CIA’s National Clandestine Service