South Koreans' recent election of Lee Myung-bak as their new president has provided the United States an opportunity to revitalize its alliance with the Republic of Korea.
Join members of "New Beginnings," a nonpartisan policy study group of former senior U.S. officials and other experts on Korea, for a discussion of the results of President Lee's visit and of the prospects for forging a real partnership with South Korea- World Affairs Council of Northern California
Bio
Michael Armacost
Michael H. Armacost is a fellow at Stanford University's Institute for International Studies. He previously was the president of the Brookings Institution from 1995-2002. In January 1977 Armacost was selected as a member of the National Security Council to handle East Asian and Chinese affairs under the Carter administration until July 1978, when he was replaced by Nicholas Platt. Years later he was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1989-1993, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1984-1989, and Ambassador to the Philippines from 1982-1984. He also served as Acting Secretary of State from January 20-January 25, 1989. He was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in 2007.
N. Bruce Pickering
N. Bruce Pickering has been the executive director of Asia Society's Northern California Center since 2003, with a background in government, non-profit organizations and academia.
Previously, he was director of public affairs and development at the graduate school of journalism and special assistant to the director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He also served as program director of the World Affairs Council (1997-1999) and executive director of the U.S. Japan 21st Century Project.
Earlier in his career, he served as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, specializing in Political and Arms Control issues (1981-1993), and was deputy political counsel on the U.S. delegation to the Conference on security and cooperation in Vienna during the collapse of the Soviet Union (1988-1992).
He serves as executive director of the California State Assembly International Relations Foundation Board.
Evans Revere
Evans Revere is the President of the Korea Society and Cyrus R. Vance Fellow in Diplomatic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
Dr. Gi-wook Shin
Gi-wook Shin is Director, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University.
Dan Sneider
Dan Sneider is Foreign Affairs Correspondent for The San Jose Mercury News.
David Straub
David Straub is currently a 2007-2008 Pantech Fellow at the Shorenstein APARC where he is writing a book on recent U.S.-Korea relations.
An educator and commentator on current Northeast Asian affairs, Straub retired from the U.S. Department of State in 2006 as a Senior Foreign Service Officer after a 30-year career focused on Northeast Asian affairs. He worked over 12 years on Korean affairs, first arriving in Seoul in 1979, just months before the assassination of President Park Chung Hee.
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