Over the final two weeks in January the CSIS Asia team hosted more than 1,200 visitors for five public events covering issues directly connected to the Asia-Pacific including tensions in the East China Sea, the U.S.-Australia alliance, the ROK-U.S. alliance, China’s local government debt and our 2nd annual CSIS Asia Forecast event.

On the evening of January 15th, Bob Schieffer got the ball rolling in a discussion of U.S. perspectives on the flaring East China Sea dispute between China and Japan with David Sanger of the New York Times, former assistant secretary of state Dr. Kurt Campbell, and CSIS’s own senior vice president for Asia and Japan chair Dr. Michael Green.

The Dracopoulos Family Ideas at CSIS Lab prepared a multimedia video presentation highlighting the dynamics for Northeast Asia of the ongoing disagreement to frame the state of play for the audience at this Schieffer series event. The group then dove in with discussion of China’s announcement of an ADIZ covering the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, Prime Minister Abe’s reactions and subsequent visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, as well as broader implications for U.S.-China relations and the U.S.-Japan alliance. You can watch full event video embedded below or listen to the audio here:

The following Tuesday, January 21, attendees braved the cold for an important discussion of the U.S.-Korea Security Alliance, concluding a series of CSIS Korea Chair events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the alliance. In the opening panel, Dr. Kathleen Hicks, senior vice president and Kissinger Chair at CSIS, hosted a panel to draw on the knowledge of three former USFK force commanders- Generals John Tilelli, Walter Sharp and James Thurman.

Drawing on their expertise, the generals discussed the durability of the military alliance between the United States and South Korea, the issue of OP-CON transfer, and readiness for future North Korea provocations. Readers can watch Dr. Hicks and the generals here or listen to the audio of the panel here.

The audience was also given the rare opportunity to hear Sydney Seiler, Director for Korea on the current National Security Council, discuss perspectives from the White House on the alliance and on North Korea in public.

The very next day in collaboration with the The United States Studies Centre of the University of Sydney, the CSIS Pacific Partners Initiative hosted a full day conference titled “U.S.-Australia: The Alliance in an Emerging Asia.”

A series of discussions with political and business leaders from the United States and Australia followed a brief welcome message from Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia. Asia watchers heard successive panels focus on facets of the U.S.-Australia alliance, including politics and security in an emerging Asia, resources and sustainability, investment and trade, and opportunities in a global economy. One of the highlights of the event was the Australian keynote speech delivered by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop:

China’s local government debt –  a topic of frequent debate among China watchers and economic specialists – was the subject of our Freeman Chair in China Studies Reality Check event on January 27. Featuring noted Sino-econ watchers Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute the event engaged in some myth-busting on China’s government spending practices. The two panelists and Freeman Chair Chris Johnson analyzed paths forward for Chinese fiscal policy and the dynamics within the party as it attempts to implement financial and economic reforms following the Central Committee’s influential Third Plenum in November 2013. Watch the video of the panel here:

In our ongoing efforts to highlight the dynamic geopolitical challenges across East Asia and the Indo-Pacific, CSIS hosted its second annual Asia Forecast event on January 29, 2014. The event represented an opportunity for the policy community in Washington, D.C. to hear our Asia experts at CSIS preview the issues that will dominate political, economic, and security discourse throughout the region from the perspective of the United States, U.S. allies, and partners in the region during the coming year.

The event featured real-time surveys of our audience- many knowledgeable experts or practitioners themselves-on expectations for economic growth and Asian security considerations in 2014. Progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, consistency in U.S. presence and stable relations with China were among the key themes through-out. The first panel of our experts shown above reviewed regional security issues and challenges that leaders will face going forward. You can watch Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post, moderate this conversation here. A second panel featuring Simon Chair Matthew Goodman, Scholl Chair Scott Miller and new Wadhwani Chair for U.S.-India Policy Studies Richard Rossow, moderated by the Wall Street Journal’s John Bussey focused on Asia’s economic and trade forecast in 2014. You can watch this panel here.

Our final panel of the day featured a conversation with three sitting Ambassadors to the United States from Asian countries. Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae of Japan, Ambassador Ashok Mirpuri of Singapore and Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Cuong of Vietnam provided their views. When asked by moderator Mike Green to lay-out their views of the goals for President Obama’s trip to the region in April, the three framed expectations for U.S. presence and commitment to the region succinctly and compellingly- to the point our neighbors at the White House’s National Security Council (@NSCPress) were seeking a transcript:

Thanks to our 1,200+ attendees over the five events, not to mention participants online, the last two weeks of January at CSIS demonstrated the public’s interest in Asia’s security, economic and political developments and the continuing impetus to discuss U.S. and regional perspectives on the Indo-Pacific issues that will grab the headlines in 2014 and beyond.