This workshop will address the following themes: The Pivot and China’s Rise, The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Its Impacts and Strategic Dimensions, Northeast Asian Dangers and Opportunities, and Southeast Asian Dangers and Opportunities. As we approach the centenary of World War I, figures as diverse as Joseph Nye, Henry Kissinger and Japan’s Prime Minister Abe warn that the tensions in East Asia are reminiscent of 1914 Europe. Rising and declining powers—China and the U.S.—are locked in military and economic competition. Territorial disputes from Northeast to Southeast Asia are becoming dangerously militarized.  Nationalism is growing force across a region caught up in multiple arms races. Interlocking alliance systems could transform a minor incident in the East or South China Seas into a catastrophic global war. At the same time, growing international trade results simultaneously in economic interdependence and intense competition. Globalization is on the march with new communications technologies. While many argue that war is unthinkable, others warn that a general war could end civilization as we know it.

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