The State of the World, with Kyung-wha Kang and Adam Tooze
On Asia's rise, Europe's doubts, and the new Trump administration
We're kicking off the year with two great minds discussing the State of the World as Asia's global importance continues to grow, Europe seems somewhat lost in self-doubt, and the U.S. is preparing for the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Listen to Asia Society President & CEO Kyung-wha Kang and economic historian Adam Tooze, professor at Columbia University in New York. Their conversation was recorded at STATE OF ASIA, the flagship conference hosted by Asia Society Switzerland last November, in Zurich.
More information on the conference, the speakers, plus videos and summaries, available here.
GUESTS ON THIS EPISODE

Kyung-wha Kang is President & CEO of the Asia Society. She served as the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, from 2017 to 2021. Dr. Kang is a veteran diplomat in the Korean Foreign Ministry and the United Nations, holding positions in Seoul, New York, and Geneva. Prior to her appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs, she served as Senior Advisor on Policy to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, as well as Chief of his Transition Team. Dr. Kang also served as Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs from April 2013 to October 2016, and was Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights from January 2007 to March 2013. Her roles in the UN marked the highest positions held in an international organization by a Korean woman.

Adam Tooze holds the Shelby Cullom Davis chair of History at Columbia University and serves as Director of the European Institute there. In 2019, Foreign Policy Magazine named him one of the top Global Thinkers of the decade.
Adam is the author of several books, including Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy (2021). For his books Adam won the Leverhulme prize fellowship, the H-Soz-Kult Historisches Buch Prize, the Longman History Today Prize, the Wolfson Prize and the LA Times History Prize.
Chartbook, his newsletter on economics, geopolitics and history, has over 120,000 subscribers. He is a columnist for Foreign Policy, where he also hosts a weekly economics podcast, Ones & Tooze.
STATE OF ASIA podcast

Season 8, Episode 1 – published January 7, 2025
Host / Editor: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland
Find previous and future episodes here, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or search for 'State of Asia' in any other podcast app. We're also on YouTube.