JASH
Military Update
The Role of the U.S. and Japan
in the China-Taiwan Relationship
Thursday, June 3, 2021
4:00-5:00pm (HST)
Zoom Panel Discussion
The Japan-America Society of Hawaii is honored to host a Zoom webinar panel discussion focusing on “The Role of the U.S. and Japan in the China-Taiwan Relationship.” Our esteemed panelists are Major General (Ret.) Suzanne Vares-Lum (Owner, Vares-Lum Indo-Pacific Consulting, LLC) and Dr. John Hemmings (Associate Professor, Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies), with a special welcome by the Director of APCSS, Rear Admiral (Ret.) Peter Gumataotao. Our guest moderator is Ms. Barbara Tanabe (Owner, Hoʻakea Communications, LLC).
JASH Members: Free
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED
General Admission: $10
Step 1: Payment
Step 2: Zoom Registration
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED
The program is FREE for JASH Members and $10 for General Admission (non-members). To register for general admission, first purchase your ticket (Step 1 - "Add to Cart" button) and then register your contact information via Zoom (Step 2: "Sign Up" button). Registrants will receive the Zoom Webinar join information once JASH Staff has confirmed their registration is complete.
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Panelists
U.S. Army Major General (Ret.) Suzanne Vares-Lum served 34 years in the U.S. military. She is an influential executive with leadership and planning experience spanning the past several decades, culminating in the past five years serving with and advising the most senior officials at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which is the largest and oldest U.S. Combatant Command, spans 52% of the earth’s surface, and encompasses over 377K military personnel. She held key roles in addressing priority U.S. national security challenges in the region, including those related to the People's Republic of China, Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and violent extremist organizations, as well as natural disasters. She possesses comprehensive knowledge of Indo-Pacific posture, policies, relationships, emerging trends/threats, and long-term objectives in order to support ongoing operations and ultimately foster peace, equity, and cooperation throughout the region. Most recently, as the Mobilization Assistant to the Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, she led collaboration efforts on a range of U.S. Pacific Homeland (Hawaii, Guam, and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands) initiatives. She cultivated and maintained key relationships among 36 nations within the Indo-Pacific region, engaging with senior leaders in the U.S. Department of Defense, Interagency, local, state, and national government. Suzanne received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and her Master of Education in Teaching from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is also a graduate of the U.S. Army War College and earned a Master of Strategic Studies degree. Her awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, and the Iraqi Campaign Medal. In 2017, she was a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
Dr. John Hemmings joined the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS) in July 2019. His areas of focus at DKI APCSS are Northeast Asian security, Japanese defence policy, the Indo-Pacific concept, alliance theory, and US alliances. He takes a special interest in 5G and national security. Prior to arriving at DKI APCSS, Dr. Hemmings was the founding Director of the Asia Studies Centre and Deputy Research Director at the Henry Jackson Society, a trans-Atlantic think tank in London. During this time, he regularly briefed multiple government departments and agencies, including the UK Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Defense, and gave testimony to the House of Commons Defence Committee on security in East Asia. While he was at the Henry Jackson Society, Dr. Hemmings co-authored a study on Huawei, 5G and the Five Eyes, multiple studies on the Indo-Pacific, and coordinated a project on diplomacy on the Korean peninsula. Between 2007 and 2011, Dr. Hemmings worked at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in Whitehall, where he was a researcher on Northeast Asian defence and security studies. During this period, he undertook research on South Korean stabilization activities in Kabul and Parwan, Afghanistan on behalf of the Asia Foundation and reviewed Japanese defense industrial policy. Over the course of his career, Dr. Hemmings has held honorary fellowships with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Pacific Forum, and a visiting scholarship with Hitotsubashi University in Japan. Dr. Hemmings regularly writes about international affairs for the Lowy Interpreter, the National Interest, CapX and the Telegraph newspaper. He also publishes with academic journals, and has written for International Affairs, the RUSI Journal, Issues and Insights, the Harvard Asia Quarterly, and International Politics Review. He gained his Masters degree in International Peace and Security from Kings College London in 2007 and gained his PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics in 2017, where he wrote about the US-Japan-Australia trilateral.
Moderator
Barbara Tanabe is Owner and Founder of Ho'akea Communications, LLC (a public affairs company). Ms. Tanabe started her career as a News Anchor in Washington at KOMO-TV becoming one of the first Asian-American women News Anchors on the West Coast. Ms. Tanabe won an Emmy Award for her piece, “The Fence at Minidoka,” a documentary focused on Japanese-Americans interned in the United States during World War II. In Honolulu, while at KHON-TV, she became the first female News Co-Anchor of Asian descent on July 29, 1974. She holds an MBA in Communication from the University of Hawai`i. She is a Board Director for both JASH and Bank of Hawaii.
JASH Members: Free
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED
General Admission: $10
Step 1: Payment
Step 2: Zoom Registration
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED