Who We Are

The Wilson Center is the world’s number one think tank for transdisciplinary research. We view the world through many lenses blending strategic, historical, regional, and technical scholarship to inform policymakers and citizens around the country and across the globe.

Among all American think tanks, only the Wilson Center was founded by Congress to provide nonpartisan insight and advice on public and foreign policy. That is why Wilson Center scholars have enjoyed the strong bipartisan support of Congress for fifty years.

The Discussion

The U.S. has not had to rethink fundamental assumptions about its place in the world since the mid-20th century. It must do so now. The durability of the American-led order is in doubt. A shifting balance of power, new technologies and values, environmental degradation, terrorism, and economic inequality demand new responses not only from nations, but from industry, multilateral bodies, and NGOs.

The Wilson Forum

To address these important topics, the Wilson Center is launching twice yearly Forums to break out of political and professional silos and spotlight global dynamics that rarely make headlines. Unlike most policy conferences, which try to solve problems within established frameworks, the Forums will take a long view and frame challenges not yet clearly identified.

Forums currently in development include:

·         Beyond the Korean Crisis: Living in a Proliferated World

·         Autocrats Rising: The Future of Rule of Law

·         The Future of NATO: Responding to Russia’s Assertive Nationalism

·         Continent Rising: Africa and a New World Order

·         NAFTA 2.0 – Toward a more Integrated North America?

The Opportunity

The Wilson Center is pleased to offer a special opportunity to support this prestigious Forum series. The Inaugural meeting will take place October 18 at the Wilson Center, just blocks from the White House. Entitled ‘American Relations with a Risen China’, the day-long executive seminar, featuring an invitation-only, intimate discussion with Dr. Henry Kissinger, whose frank, informed analysis makes him the only thinker whose counsel has been continuously sought in both Beijing and Washington over the past forty years.

Agenda

7:45am - 8:15am         Registration

8:15am - 8:30am         Welcome and Introductions

                The Honorable Jane Harman, President & CEO, the Wilson Center

8:30am - 9:30am         Breakfast Discussion

   Destined for War: Can America and China Escape the Thucydides Trap? 
  with Professor Graham Allison

9:30am - 9:45am         Break

9:45am - 10:45am     What’s at Stake at the 19^th Party Congress? 
                                          with Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy and Sandy Pho

10:45am - 11:30am     Chinese Cyber Policy and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
                                          with Aynne Kokas, Nova Daly, and Meg King

11:45am - 12:15pm     Networking Break

12:15pm - 2:00pm       Luncheon Discussion with Dr. Henry A. Kissinger

                                    Is there a Stable Foundation for U.S. Relations with a Risen China?

2:00pm - 2:45pm         Sino-U.S. Competition for Soft Power and Global Leadership   
                                          with Robert Daly  

2:50pm - 3:50pm         Global Views on U.S.-China Competition
                                         with Abe Denmark, Monde Muyangwa, Duncan Wood, and Laura Dawson

4:00pm - 5:00pm         Reception

                                       with Lieutenant General Bryan P. Fenton, Deputy Commander, U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Army

Speaker Biographies

Graham Allison
Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University

As "Founding Dean" of the modern Kennedy School from 1977-1989, under his leadership a small, undefined program grew twenty-fold to become a major professional school of public policy and government. Dr. Allison served as Assistant Secretary of Defense in the first Clinton Administration and Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense under President Reagan.

Nova J. Daly

Senior Public Policy Advisor, Wiley Rein LLP

Nova, an experienced international investment and trade policy professional, has held senior leadership positions at the U.S. Departments of the Treasury and Commerce, the White House, and the U.S. Senate. Drawing on his experience in the management, development, and implementation of the U.S. economic and national security policies and programs, he provides both high-level insight and deep operational experience to help clients navigate the policy and regulatory environment surrounding cross-border business activities, especially through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Robert Daly
Director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center

Robert Daly, the Director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, has compiled an unusually diverse portfolio of high-level work. He has served as a U.S. diplomat in Beijing; as an interpreter for Chinese and U.S. leaders, including President Carter and Secretary of State Kissinger; as head of China programs at Johns Hopkins, Syracuse, and the University of Maryland; and as a producer of Chinese-language versions of Sesame Street. Recognized East and West as a leading authority on Sino-U.S. relations, he has testified before Congress, lectured widely in both countries, and regularly offers analysis for top media outlets.

Laura Dawson
Director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center

Laura Dawson, the Director of the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute, is one of the world’s leading experts on political and economic relations between the U.S. and its northern neighbor. Named among the top 100 foreign policy influencers in Canada, she is an in-demand writer, analyst and adviser on NAFTA, TPP, and international trade. The founder of Dawson Strategic, an economic research and consulting firm, Dawson is a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and was senior adviser on economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. 

Abraham Denmark
Director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center

Abraham Denmark recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, where he supported the Secretary of Defense and other senior U.S. government leaders in the formulation and implementation of defense policy for China, Japan, Mongolia, North and South Korea, and Taiwan. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President for Political and Security Affairs and External Relations at NBR.

Lt Gen Bryan P. Fenton

Deputy Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM)

Lieutenant General Bryan P. Fenton assumed duties as the Deputy Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) on May 12, 2017. He is the 32nd Deputy Commander since USPACOM was established on Jan 1, 1947. Lieutenant General Fenton has served in multiple geographic combatant commands and participated in Operation Joint Forge (Bosnia); Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan/Africa); Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Odyssey Dawn (Libya). His education includes: a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame; a Masters degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS and negotiation/leadership training at Harvard’s Business/Law Schools.

The Honorable Jane Harman
Director, President & CEO, the Wilson Center

Jane Harman, the Director, President and CEO of the Wilson Center, is an internationally recognized authority on U.S. and global security issues, foreign relations and lawmaking. A native of Los Angeles and a public-school graduate, she went on to become a nine-term member of Congress, serving decades on the major security committees in the House of Representatives. Drawing upon a career that has included service as President Carter’s Secretary of the Cabinet and hundreds of diplomatic missions to foreign countries, Harman holds posts on nearly a dozen governmental and non-governmental advisory boards and commissions.

Meg King
Strategic and National Security Advisor to the Wilson Center President and Director of the Center’s Digital Futures Project

Meg King, the Strategic and National Security Advisor to the Wilson Center President and Director of the Center’s Digital Futures Project, guides and manages the work of the executive office, while overseeing cutting-edge training programs to equip generations of Congressional staff with cybersecurity skills. A former senior staff member on the House Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, she has written on topics ranging from ISIS hackers to encryption.

Dr. Henry A. Kissinger

Henry Alfred Kissinger was sworn in on September 22, 1973, as the 56th Secretary of State, a position he held until January 20, 1977. He also served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In July 1983 he was appointed by President Reagan to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America. He served as a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. From 1986-1988 he was a member of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council and Defense Department. He served as a member of the Defense Policy Board from 2001 to 2016. At present, Dr. Kissinger is Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm.

Dr. Henry A. Kissinger is also the author of On China and World Order, among others.

Aynne Kokas
Fellow of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center

Aynne Kokas, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Hollywood Made in China. Kokas’ work focuses on the intersections between Chinese and U.S. media and technology industries. She has written extensively about the challenges and opportunities presented by public-private partnerships in Sino-U.S. joint ventures, with particular focus on the media industries.

Monde Muyangwa
Director of the Africa Program at the Wilson Center

Monde Muyangwa, the Director of the Wilson Center’s Africa Program, has visited more than 30 African countries and leverages her experience to address the continent’s most critical issues, as well as U.S.-Africa relations. Previously the longtime Academic Dean at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, she has been a professor, a nonprofit leader, a development consultant, and a Rhodes Scholar. A widely-cited authority on governance, security, and development issues, Muyangwa challenges dominant narratives about the continent.

Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy
Wilson Center Distinguished Fellow and former U.S. Ambassador to China

Ambassador J. Stapleton “Stape” Roy is the Founding Director Emeritus and a Distinguished Scholar at the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. From watching the Chinese Civil War from the roof of his school, to participating in the secret negotiations to establish U.S. – P.R.C. diplomatic relations, to serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, Roy has lived through, navigated, and studied the development of China and modern Asia for more than 70 years. Holding the rank of Career Ambassador, he has served as the top U.S. envoy to Singapore, China, and Indonesia. A fluent Mandarin-speaker, Roy is widely quoted on political developments in China and East Asia.

Duncan Wood
Director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center

Duncan Wood is a “North American citizen,” lecturing and publishing widely in the United States, Mexico and Canada on intracontinental issues and relations, with a primary focus on U.S.-Mexican ties. A widely-quoted authority on energy policy, international banking regulation and corruption, he works closely with the World Economic Forum and leverages decades of experience at Mexico’s leading universities and newspapers.