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211. Legacies of the Vietnam War - Napalm Girl: After the Dragons Left

Author:
Phan Thi Kim Phuc, Nick Ut, Fox Butterfield, and Tony Bui
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
A discussion featuring Kim Phuc, the focal point of one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century, captured on June 8, 1972, in Trang Bang, Vietnam. On this day, a napalm attack led to a moment frozen in time by photographer Nick Ut, showcasing the tragic human cost of war. Together with Kim Phuc, we will explore the enduring legacy and significance of this photograph, examining its impact on public perception of war, its role in shaping anti-war movements, and its continued relevance in today's global discourse on peace and reconciliation. The panel will give different perspectives on the power of imagery in historical memory and the journey of healing and advocacy that followed one of history's most turbulent periods.
Topic:
Public Opinion, Media, Conflict, Vietnam War, and Photojournalism
Political Geography:
Vietnam and Southeast Asia

212. Legacies of the Vietnam War - Scars of War in Indochina

Author:
George Black, Elizabeth Becker, Sera Koulabdara, and Peter Osnos
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
What are the impacts and lasting effects of the bombardments of Agent Orange, napalm, and other explosive ordnance on Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam? How has this affected the country and its people? What can we learn from what has happened and how do we move forward from here? In this panel, we get perspectives from leaders who have insider knowledge on the legacies of war.
Topic:
Vietnam War, Post-Conflict, Napalm, and Agent Orange
Political Geography:
Vietnam, Cambodia, Southeast Asia, and Laos

213. Legacies of the Vietnam War - War Reporting: Lessons from Vietnam

Author:
Peter Arnett, Fox Butterfield, Edith Lederer, Nancy Trieu Giang Bui, Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, and James Bennet
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
How did the harsh reality of the Vietnam War change war reporting, and how did these changes affect reporting for generations to come? What lessons in Vietnam remain relevant in today's war coverage? This panel features renowned Vietnam War journalists Peter Arnett, Fox Butterfield, Edith Lederer, and Nancy Trieu Giang Bui, as they explore the evolution of war reporting from the Vietnam War to contemporary conflicts. Through their firsthand experiences, the panelists will discuss the challenges, ethical dilemmas, and transformative lessons learned in the field. This discussion hopes to shed light on the significant impact of journalism in times of war and how historical insights can guide today's war correspondents.
Topic:
Media, Ethics, Conflict, Journalism, and Vietnam War
Political Geography:
Vietnam and Southeast Asia

214. Korea: A New History of South and North – A Book Talk by Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo

Author:
Victor D. Cha, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Jonathan Corrado
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo will talk about their new book, Korea: A New History of South and North, which charts the balance of power politics that ravaged Korea in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, the division of the two Koreas and their divergent paths thereafter. The book also includes original data on unification and how the great powers view a future single Korea.
Topic:
History, Power Politics, Conflict, Unification, and Book Talk
Political Geography:
Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

215. Mainline Islam: Islamic Associational Life in Indonesia

Author:
Kevin W. Fogg and Sidney Jone
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Indonesian Islam has a unique structure in its associational life, in the form of mass Islamic organizations. The most well-known of these, NU and Muhammadiyah, are frequently heralded by politicians and scholars as pillars of religious life and civil society in Indonesia, but there are many similar organizations that function on a provincial or regional level in a similar capacity. This project draws in a comparative study of three regional mass Islamic organizations—Jamiyatul Washliyah founded in Medan, Nahdlatul Ulama based on Lombok, and Alkhairaat headquartered in Palu—to draw broader conclusions about the nature of Islamic associational life in Indonesia, how Indonesian organizations differ from Islamic groups in other countries, and how Islamic organizations in Indonesia have changed over the last century. The project also uses a comparison with American Protestantism, the so-called “Mainline Protestant Denominations,” to articulate a category of organization that is normative in Indonesia but unknown elsewhere in the Islamic world: “mainline” Islamic organizations.
Topic:
Islam, Religion, Domestic Politics, and Religious Organizations
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Southeast Asia

216. Is Guanxi Changing? Referral Hiring and Social Networks in China

Author:
Elena Obukhova and Yao Lu
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
What is the role of guanxi in China today? To answer this question, Professor Elena Obukhova examines the relationship between social networks and referral hiring. In the first study, she compares China and the US. In the second study, she explores differences between China’s provinces. This event is part of the 2023-2024 lecture series on “Labor Market Transformations in China" and is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by Columbia's China Center for Social Policy.
Topic:
Markets, Labor Issues, Social Networks, and Hiring
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and United States of America

217. Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control

Author:
Dali Yang, Qin Gao, Junyan Jiang, and Xiaobo Lü
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic, which began as an outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, has claimed millions of lives and caused unprecedented disruptions. Despite its generation-defining significance, there has been a surprising lack of independent research examining the decisions and measures implemented in the weeks leading up to the Wuhan lockdown, as well as the missteps and shortcomings that allowed the novel coronavirus to spread with minimal hindrance. In this book talk, Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, Dali L. Yang scrutinizes China's emergency response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, delving into the government's handling of epidemic information and the decisions that influenced the scale and scope of the outbreak. Yang's research reveals that China's health decision-makers and experts had an excellent head start when they implemented a health emergency action program to respond to the outbreak at the end of December 2019. With granular detail and compelling immediacy, Yang investigates the political and bureaucratic processes that hindered information flows and sharing, as well as the cognitive framework that limited understanding of the virus's contagiousness and hampered effective decisions and enabled the outbreak to spiral out of control.
Topic:
Government, Crisis Management, Bureaucracy, COVID-19, Decision-Making, Zero-COVID, and Emergencies
Political Geography:
China and Asia

218. China and Latin America: A New Assessment

Author:
Parsifal D'Sola Alvarado and Xiaobo Lü
Publication Date:
02-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Parsifal D'Sola, a MARSEA alum, will deliver a presentation offering a general overview of the current state and prospective trends in China-Latin America relations. The talk will explore the evolving interactions and strategic dynamics between China and Latin American countries, highlighting developments over the past two decades. Key areas of discussion include the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America and the peripheral effects of US-China tensions on the region. An important aspect of the presentation will be examining the diverse perceptions of China across Latin American countries and how these views influence bilateral relations and policy decisions. D'Sola will also share his thoughts on future trends, offering a broad perspective on the likely course of China's engagement with Latin America in the coming years. Speaker's Bio: Parsifal D’Sola is the founder and executive director of the Andres Bello Foundation – China Latin America Research Center in Bogota, Colombia. He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. Parsifal is a Chinese foreign policy analyst specializing in Sino-Latin American relations with a focus on Venezuela. Between 2019 and 2020, he acted as Chinese foreign policy advisor to the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Interim Government of Venezuela. He holds a BS in Telecommunications Engineering from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, an MA in East Asian Studies from Columbia University, an MSc in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and an advance language diploma from Beijing Language and Culture University.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Bilateral Relations, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Trade
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Latin America

219. The White Crane of Alagśa: Legends of the Sixth Dalai Lama in Mongolia

Author:
Sangseraima Ujeed and Gray Tuttle
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
The Sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1706/46) was recognized in secrecy, lived in controversy, and passed out of history in mystery. The popular tradition holds that he died whilst travelling to Beijing. Yet in some parts of Mongolia, it is believed that the exiled Sixth Dalai Lama escaped his captors and lived out his life in the dessert Gobi region of Alagśa, Inner Mongolia. To this day in Alagśa, the figure of the Sixth Dalai Lama still serves as a central pillar of the Alagśan identity, religion, and cultural pride among the local Mongolian population. Based on new materials in the form of oral histories, local legends, folk songs, poems, and textual sources which I collected about the Sixth Dalai Lama and the reincarnation of the Desi Sanggye Gyatso in Alagśa during a research trip in 2019, this paper will explore the formation of religio-cultural identity and the invention of tradition in the Alagśa during the early eighteenth century. This is not a paper that tries to solve the mystery of Tsangyang Gyatso’s death, but rather, one that explores the role Tsangyang Gyatso played for the Alagśa Mongols in creating narratives of identity and their realm Alagśa as an authentic Buddhist central place. This is a story of how Tsangyang Gyatso, his identities, and his interpersonal relationships were reborn in Alagśa and the role he played in consolidating Alagśa’s place within the wider geopolitical spheres of the cosmopolitan Buddhist world that spanned the Himalayas, Inner Asia, and the Qing.
Topic:
Religion, History, Geopolitics, Identity, Tradition, Dalai Lama, and Reincarnation
Political Geography:
China, Mongolia, and Asia

220. Japan’s Strategic Cooperation with NATO: Connectivity between Ukraine and Taiwan Crises

Author:
Tomonori Yoshizaki and Ayumi Teraoka
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
China’s global outreach and the War in Ukraine have pushed U.S. allies in Asia and Europe closer in recent years. Professor Tomonori Yoshizaki of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), former Vice President of the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, will help us understand the motivations behind the developing ties between Japan and NATO. He will explore the prospects of their cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and beyond and conclude by offering implications for the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, NATO, International Cooperation, Alliance, Crisis Management, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:
Japan, Europe, Taiwan, Asia, and United States of America