The Asia Foundation

San Francisco

The Asia Foundation is pleased to announce the recent arrival to the Bay Area of Mr. Amandeep Singh Gill, Director of Disarmament and International Security Affairs of India’s Ministry of External Affairs. As the fifth recipient of The Asia Foundation’s India Regional Security Studies Fellowship, he will be a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) during the academic year beginning September 2008.

For his research at CISAC, Mr. Gill proposes to analyze the influence of the policies of large possessors of nuclear weapons (i.e., the U.S. and Russia) on the policies of other possessors in the post-Cold War period. He will also examine the extent to which the possible possession and pursuit of nuclear weapons by others influences the policies of the U.S. and Russia.

Mr. Gill’s diplomatic career has included assignments in Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Iran, and the Permanent Mission of India to the UN. His professional areas of interest focus on international relations, disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation, regional security in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Southwest Asia, and human security issues. In 2007-2008, he represented India on the UN Secretary General’s Panel on Missiles.

San Francisco

The Asia Foundation has received support from the Henry Luce Foundation for a three-year exchange program to promote education and dialogue on Sino-American relations. The project will include: 12 master’s degree fellowships for junior staff selected from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at The Johns Hopkins University; three study tours to China for a total of 30 American graduate students from Fletcher and SAIS; and three bilateral dialogue events in Beijing for approximately 150 participants.

Through this program, participants from both sides of the Pacific will explore contemporary issues that influence Sino-American relations, including current foreign aid policy, East Asia community building, and the environment, as well as domestic factors that shape Chinese and American approaches to regional and global affairs.

The Asia Foundation has maintained exchanges between China and the U.S. for the past 26 years, and the Henry Luce Foundation’s support allows the program to expand. The first group of Fellows will begin classes in the Fall.

San Francisco

The Asia Foundation is pleased to announce that Dr. Ho-Dong Lee has joined the Foundation as a visiting researcher through the Korean Government’s Overseas Research Fellowship Program. He is the second recipient of the fellowship to be affiliated with The Asia Foundation. Dr. Lee will be based at the Foundation’s San Francisco headquarters for a year-and-a-half to conduct research on a comparative study of fiscal policies and management systems of the U.S. and other advanced countries, and their possible applications in Asia, including Korea.

Dr. Lee has served in the Korean government for 16 years and worked at the Ministry of Planning and Budget (MPB) since 1998. He was Director of the Economic Administration Public Expenditure Division and was formerly Director of the International Cooperation & Education Division of the Fiscal Strategy Office at MPB. Additionally, he served as Policy Analyst (Director-level) first on the Welfare & Labor Policy Team of the National Economic Advisory Council and later on the Policy Evaluation Team of the National Economic Advisory Council (Constitutional Presidential Committee), monitoring and preparing reports to the President on key economic issues and compiling research results from private research institutes.

San Francisco

Asian Scholars to Participate in Berkeley’s Environmental Leadership Program

With increasing attention on critical global environmental concerns, improved coordination and dialogue between key stakeholders and decision makers will be essential in international efforts to safeguard natural resources. The Asia Foundation, the premier non-profit organization devoted to Asia’s development since 1954, has awarded two fellowships and a travel grant to three Southeast Asian environmental professionals to attend the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP), a three-week summer certificate course in Sustainable Environmental Management conducted by the Center for Sustainable Resource Development of the University of California, Berkeley. The Beahrs’ ELP course brings together environmental leaders from around the world to study under UC Berkeley faculty and specialists and share best practices among peers.

“Asia’s environmental leaders will play a critical role in promoting sound global environmental management in the coming decades. We’re very pleased to be able provide three of Southeast Asia’s emerging leaders with the opportunity to experience a world-class, multidisciplinary educational program in sustainable environmental management,” said Chris Plante, The Asia Foundation’s Director of Environment Programs.

Recognizing the complex economic, social, and political challenges facing environmental professionals, the Foundation has identified scholars from the neighboring countries of the Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam to participate in the Beahrs ELP. Each Fellow has demonstrated commitment to his or her field and will bring a unique perspective to the natural resource and environmental management discourse.

Since 2001, the ELP has graduated 190 environmental leaders from sixty-two countries. For more information about the Beahrs’ ELP course, see http://beahrselp.berkeley.edu. The course began on Sunday, June 24.

San Francisco

The Asia Foundation, the premier non-profit organization devoted to Asia’s development since 1954, announced today that Dr. Sung-Jun Kang has joined the Foundation as a visiting researcher through the Korean Government’s Overseas Research Fellowship Program. As a senior government official, Dr. Kang will be based at the Foundation’s San Francisco headquarters for 18 months to explore possible Foundation cooperation with the Government of Korea in the latter’s development assistance efforts and to conduct comparative research on public finance and fiscal cooperation in the Asia region.

Dr. Kang has served in the Korean government for 15 years and worked at the Ministry of Planning and Budget (MPB) since 1999. He is Director of Organizational Performance and Management and was formerly Senior Deputy Director of Government Reform at MPB. Additionally, he served as Director of International Cooperation and Education at the Ministry, responsible for research on budgeting and fiscal reform in OECD member countries, and as Director of Policy Management for the Korean Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development, where he was in charge of formulating policies and developing improvement measures for local financial management.

Dr. Kang received his B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University and earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His thesis on inflation forecasting with profit and regression models was published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics.