Asia Society would like to invite you to a hybrid program to understand how Asia views the 2024 US election.

With the US heading to the polls in November, Asia, like the rest of the world, will be following the election outcome closely. While all US elections are consequential for the world, this one seems especially so, with the two candidates charting divergent paths for US policy on issues such as global security, trade and climate change.

Join Asia Society’s global network of experts from Melbourne, Delhi, Hong Kong and Japan to explore how Asian countries perceive the US role in Asia and what bearing the election will have on the region’s security and prosperity.

Date: Wednesday 11 September 2024

Time:

Melbourne, Australia – 7:00pm – 8:00pm
New Delhi, India - 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Hong Kong - 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Tokyo, Japan – 6:00pm – 7:00pm

Registration is essential. Click here to register.

For additional information please email [email protected]

This event is presented in partnership with Asia Society centres in Hong Kong, India, and Japan.

About our Speakers

Dr Natalie Sambhi, Senior Policy Fellow, Asia Society Australia

Natalie Sambhi is a Senior Policy Fellow with Asia Society Australia. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, an independent think tank focussed on Southeast Asia, and a Non-resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program.

Natalie holds a BA (Asian Studies) (Hons) from the University of Western Australia, a MA (International Relations) and Master of Diplomacy from the Australian National University, and a PhD from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University on the Indonesian military’s history.

Since 2022, Natalie has worked as an academic with Deakin University, convening modules for the Australian War College’s Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC) and Australian Command and Staff Course (ACSC). She has previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, as an Analyst and Managing Editor of ASPI’s blog, The Strategist, at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), the Australian Department of Defence, University of Canberra and for the academic journal Asian-Pacific Economic Literature. In May 2014 and in January 2016, Natalie was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington, DC.

Hiroyuki Akita, Commentator, Nikkei Inc., Japan

Hiroyuki Akita is a Commentator of Nikkei. He regularly writes commentaries and columns, analysis mainly on foreign & international security affairs. He joined Nikkei in 1987 and worked at Political News Dept (1998-2002) where he covered Japanese foreign & security policies, domestic politics. He was Senior & Editorial Staff Writer (2009-2017), and he also worked at “Leader Writing Team,” of the Financial Times in London (Oct-Dec, 2017).

He was Beijing Correspondent (1994-1998) and Washington Chief Correspondent (2002-2006). In Beijing, he reported major news events such as death of Deng Xiaoping, Hong Kong handover to China. In Washington D.C., he covered White House, Pentagon, and the State Department during the Bush administration.

He graduated from Jiyu Gakuen College in 1987 and Boston University (M.A.). From 2006 to 2007, he was an associate of US-Japan Program at Harvard University, where he conducted a research on US-China-Japan relations. He published two books in Japanese: “Anryu (Power Game of US-China-Japan)”(2008), “Ranryu (Strategic Competition of US-Japan and China)”(2016).

Debra Mao, Journalist, Hong Kong

Debra Mao is a former Taiwan bureau chief for Bloomberg News as well as an Asia-based broadcast journalist for Bloomberg TV. She interviewed heads of state, corporate leaders, and market regulators in Greater China as a foreign correspondent. Early in her career, she worked on US public affairs programs including “Nightline” and “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” for ABC News in Washington DC. In 2019, Mao founded a media-tech startup and, later, hosted a technology-and-society themed podcast for China’s Alibaba Group. She is currently based in Hong Kong and consults for multinational clients on public affairs and media strategy. Mao is a San Francisco native and earned her BA in sociology from Harvard University. 

Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Former Foreign Secretary, India

Harsh Vardhan Shringla was India’s Foreign Secretary from 2020-2022. He has also served as India's Ambassador to the United States, Bangladesh and Thailand and as the Chief Coordinator for India’s G20 Presidency in 2022-23. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1984 and spent 38 years in the service. 

He has served in a variety of positions including France (as part of India's Mission to UNESCO and the embassy, respectively), the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York City, Vietnam (as consul-general in Ho Chi Minh City and at the embassy in Hanoi), Israel, and South Africa (as consul-general in Durban). Ambassador Shringla contributes regularly to opinion in India on domestic and international developments of interest . He pursued a course in conflict prevention at Columbia University and addressed prominent universities, including the Stanford School of Business, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, Chapelle Hill. 

As President of the Darjeeling Welfare Society, a non governmental organisation, he is also committed to working for the welfare of the underprivilege in remote communities, and on environmental, climate change and other  issues in north eastern India.

Asia Society Australia acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government