The Indo-Pacific and the "Quad"

PAST EVENT VIDEO

Roundtable

Can Tokyo, with its own limitations, remain a driving force behind the concept and operation of the partnership between the U.S., Japan, India, and Australia?

Emma Chanlett-Avery speaks sitting from a table

Speakers

Emma Chanlett-Avery
Weston S. Konishi
Karl Friedhoff

Event Date

March 30, 2018

About This Event

On the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in November 2017, officials from the United States, Japan, India, and Australia met to discuss the revival of quadrilateral cooperation among four of the region’s major maritime democracies. Japan chaired the meeting, focusing on the theme of a "free and open Indo-Pacific." This refrain, which also has been adopted by the Trump administration, echoed language from Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s visit to India two months prior. Tokyo has emerged as the biggest cheerleader for the “quad,” asserting its leadership and pressing other partners to embrace the new framework. What are the motivations that drive Japan’s enthusiasm for this “mini-lateral” initiative? Can Tokyo, with its own limitations, remain a driving force behind the concept and operation?

About the Speakers

Emma Chanlett-Avery

Director for Political-Security Affairs, Asia Society Policy Institute

Emma Chanlett-Avery is deputy director of the Asia Society Policy Institute's Washington, DC, office and the director for Political-Security Affairs. Previous to this post, she served for 20 years as a specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, where she focused on US relations with Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Thailand, and Singapore, with an emphasis on security issues and alliances.

Weston S. Konishi

Senior Fellow, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation

Previously, Weston S. Konishi served as the inaugural William Reinsch Visiting Lectureship of East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and also worked as the chief operating officer of Peace Winds America. From 2010 to 2013, he was director of Asia-Pacific studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA), where he specialized in Japan and Asia policy issues.

Karl Friedhoff

Marshall M. Bouton Fellow for Asia Studies

Karl Friedhoff was a Korea Foundation-Mansfield Foundation US-Korea Nexus Scholar and a member of the Mansfield Foundation’s Trilateral Working Group prior to joining the Council. Previously, he was a program officer in the Public Opinion Studies Program at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies based in Seoul, South Korea.