China’s International Mediation Efforts: the Where, Why, and How

As China’s global interests have broadened, so has its interest in international mediation. In recent years, China has assumed a more active role in international conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. China’s involvement is growing, but what is its impact?

This panel will discuss China’s motives and prospects as a contributor to diplomacy in Middle Eastern and Russia-Ukraine conflicts. Panelists will discuss regional perspectives on China’s involvement, the geopolitical factors that influence China's mediation efforts, and the impact of China’s regional engagement.

The conversation will feature Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Daniel Russel and Managing Director Rorry Daniels; as well as Council on Foreign Relations Lowy Distinguished Fellow and Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk; and Former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador of the U.S. to the Russian Federation Thomas Pickering.

Prior to the panel discussion, we will have breakfast for attendees starting at 8:00 a.m.

SPEAKERS

Ambassador Thomas Pickering has served as Vice Chairman of Hills and Company since 2016. He served as the U.S. Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York under President George H.W. Bush. Pickering led the U.S. effort to build a global coalition in the UN Security Council during and after the first Gulf War. He also was the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Bill Clinton. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Pickering was Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Executive Secretary of the Department of State, and Special Assistant to Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger.  After serving in government, Pickering was Senior Vice President of International Relations of The Boeing Company and was briefly President of the Eurasia Foundation. In 2012, Pickering chaired the Benghazi Accountability Review Board at the U.S. State Department. Pickering holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and a master’s degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He received the Distinguished Presidential Award and the Department of State’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Award. He speaks French, Spanish, and Swahili and has some fluency in Arabic, Hebrew, and Russian. 

Ambassador Martin S. Indyk is currently the Lowy distinguished fellow in U.S.-Middle East diplomacy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he served as executive vice president of the Brookings Institution, and prior to that as the vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings, and the founder of its Center for Middle East Policy. He was also the founding executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Ambassador Indyk entered government service in 1993 as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council.  Indyk served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2001. In between, he served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. In July 2013, President Obama appointed Indyk as the U.S. Special Envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, a position he held until July 2014. He is the author of Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy (A.A. Knopf, 2021) and Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (Simon and Schuster, 2009) and the co-author of Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy with Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Lieberthal (Brookings Institution Press, 2012).

Daniel Russel is Vice President for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI). Previously he served as a Diplomat-in-Residence and Senior Fellow with ASPI for a one year term. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service at the U.S. Department of State, he most recently served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs, where he helped formulate President Obama’s strategic rebalance to the Asia Pacific region, including efforts to strengthen alliances, deepen U.S. engagement with multilateral organizations, and expand cooperation with emerging powers in the region. Among many roles at the Department of State, he served as Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs and U.S. Consul General in Osaka-Kobe.

Rorry Daniels (moderator) is the Managing Director of Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), where she leads and oversees strategy and operations for ASPI's projects on security, climate change, and trade throughout Asia. She was previously with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy where she managed the organization's Track II and research portfolio on Asia security issues, with a particular focus on cross-Taiwan Strait relations, U.S.-China relations, and the North Korean nuclear program. Her most recent research project audited the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue to evaluate its process and outcomes.