U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry Briefs Asia Foundation Board of Trustees Meeting

San Francisco, May 24, 2018 — The Asia Foundation hosted former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry for a special foreign policy briefing during the Board of Trustees meeting in Redwood City this past weekend. Dr. Perry served as Secretary of Defense under the Clinton Administration 1994-1997.

At Monday’s board luncheon, Dr. Perry reflected on the history of negotiations with North Korea in the context of the proposed, and now cancelled, summit meeting. Dr. Perry is currently the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor (emeritus) at Stanford University, and is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, the Center for Security and Cooperation, and the Hoover Institution, and director of the Preventive Defense Project, all at Stanford.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry speaks to Asia Foundation Board of Trustees

On Sunday evening, Asia Foundation President David D. Arnold held a fireside chat on developments on the Korean peninsula with Trustee Kathleen Stephens, U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2008-2011; Trustee Karl Eikenberry, who has extensive experience in the Asia-Pacific region, including several operational assignments in Korea, and was both a military commander of the American-led Coalition forces and U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan; and Gi-Wook Shin, director at Stanford’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC).

Ambassador Kathleen Stephens rejoined The Asia Foundation Board of Trustees in 2015 after her posting in India as the charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. She is the William J. Perry Fellow in the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Amb. Stephens, a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, was previously Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and served in numerous posts in Washington, Asia, and Europe. Stephens’ overseas postings included service in China, Korea, Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland.

President David Arnold, Amb. Kathleen Stephens, Prof. Gi-Wook Shin, and Amb. Karl Eikenberry

Ambassador Karl Eikenberry is the Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow and director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), Stanford University. He is also a member of the APARC faculty, and an affiliate at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Relations Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law, Center for International Security Cooperation and The Europe Center. He joined The Asia Foundation Board of Trustees in 2012.

Gi-Wook Shin is the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies; the founding director of the Korea Program; a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a professor of Sociology, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations.

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