The Asian American Forum invites distinguished guests to speak at the Forum’s monthly general meetings. The Guest Speaker Program Committee aims to bring before the membership individuals with deep experience and expertise, to address political and economic topics (international and domestic) as well as religion, literature and the arts.
Members and guests meet for coffee at 9:30 a.m. The program begins at 10 a.m. and runs roughly one hour. Toward the end of each talk, members write out questions, which fuel at least thirty minutes of active Q&A.
Some recent speakers:
Japan Re-armed. Sheila Smith, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Dealing with Iran. Paul Pillar, Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Center for Security Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and an Associate Fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy
Empresses of the Qing Dynasty Pulled Out of the Shadows. Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Sri Lanka: Promises and Disappointments. Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka 1992-1995
The Cultural Tastes of Indian Food. Vikram Sunderam, James Beard Award-winner, Chef and founder of Indian Rasika, Rasika west End, and Bindass restaurants
When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics. Milan Vaishnav, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Jade: China’s Immortal Stone. Jenny So, professor emerita in the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and former senior curator of ancient Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution
The Porcelain Dragon: China’s Strength and Fragility Under Xi Jinping. Robert Daly, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center
U.S. Engagement with East Asia: The View from Singapore. His Excellency Ashok Mirpuri, Singapore’s ambassador to the United States
Being Xi Jinping: China’s Constricted Policy Space. David Finkelstein, Director, China Studies Division, Center for Naval Analysis
Magnificent Delusions: US-Pakistan Relations. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, 2008-2011
An Open Door: Jewish Rescue in the Philippines. Noel Izon, documentary filmmaker
Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China. Sheila Smith, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Linkages Across Asian and Middle Eastern Art. Carol Huh, Contemporary Asian Art Curator, Freer/Sackler Galleries
India’s Troubled Democracy. Sadanand Dhune, South Asia columnist, Wall Street Journal