A New Strategic Landscape: Changes, Challenges and Consequences

2010 Joint PLA AMS and ISDP Conference

October 11 – 12, 2010, 13:00 – 17:30

with the Chinese PLA Academy of Military Science and the Institute for Security and Development Policy

The Chinese PLA Academy of Military Science and the Swedish Institute for Security and Development Policy arrange an annual conference on a topic concerning international security. The aim of the conference is to have world leading experts present and have the opportunity to discuss their views on current security challenges. The conferences also aim to provide international experts with the unique opportunity to meet Chinese academics and high-level military officials who play a key role in determining future Chinese policy and vice versa. Participation is by personal invitation only.

During the last decade economic and political development has led to new roles for established institutions as new ones have emerged. Similarly states have also had to reassess their roles and influence as new dependencies and alliances have been formed. As these changes to the international system progress, how will this affect, in a broad sense, global security?

Click here for the full program (pdf)

Speaker Biographies

Major General Dr. YAO Yunzhu, PLA Academy of Military Science

Major General Yao joined the PLA in 1970. She holds a masters degree from the PLA’s Foreign Languages Institute, and attained her PhD in military science from the AMS. She spent one year in the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University (1995) and another at Harvard University in 2009. She has also published and translated a number of books and articles on military and security issues. In 2007 she was elected as member of the 17th CCP Congress and was also chosen as one of the ‘Top Ten Outstanding Women in China’. Currently she is a senior researcher at the Asia-Pacific Office in the Department of World Military Studies at AMS.

Senior Colonel BAO Bin, PLA Academy of Military Science

A graduate of Beijing Teacher’s College in 1984 he joined the PLA the following year, becoming a platoon leader. From 1986-88 he worked as an instructor at the NBC Defence College and was then transferred to the PLA Academy for Military Science, working in the Department of Foreign Military Studies until 1993 before joining the Department of War Theory and Strategic Studies, where he currently works. Senior Colonel BAO has also acted as a UN military observer in Iraq and from the mid-90’s became involved with national and regional security studies. From 2006-2008, he was Deputy Director of the Office for National Security at AMS.

Professor SU Hao, China Foreign Affairs University

Su Hao is one of China’s leading experts on Chinese foreign policy, Security and International Relations in the Asia-Pacific Region. In 2001 and 2002 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of War and Peace at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University and has also had academic visits to India, the United Kingdom, France, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Korea and Sweden. He has written extensively on cooperation in East Asia and is currently working on the position and role of China in the region in the Post-Cold War era. He is also the co-author on two volumes analyzing the diplomatic history of China. Prior to his current position, Su Hao was the Acting Chairman of the Department of Diplomacy and Director of China’s Foreign Relations Section also at the China Foreign Affairs University. In 2004 he was a visiting fellow at the Silk Road Studies program.

Commodore (ret) Uday BHASKAR, VSM, Director of the National Maritime Foundation

Commodore Bhaskar is currently Director of the National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi. He retired from the Indian Navy in 2007 after 37 years of service. He is concurrently Contributing Editor, South Asia Monitor and a Reuters columnist and was formerly associated with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) where he served as the Deputy Director (1996-2004) and later headed the Institute until late 2005. Subsequently he was appointed Member-Secretary of the GOI Task Force on ‘Global Strategic Developments’ – a report submitted to the PM of India. Commodore Bhaskar has edited books on nuclear and international security related issues and has contributed over 60 research articles to journals in India and abroad. He is a guest lecturer at the Indian NDC and other military colleges. He is a lifetime member of the USI; and on the Governing Council of the NMF and the RIS and is also on the Advisory Panel of the India Habitat Centre (IHC) in New Delhi.

Professor Bo HULDT, Swedish National Defence College

Professor Bo Huldt received his Ph.D. in 1974 from the Department of History at Lund University. He has worked as an associate professor and researcher at the Secretariat for Futures Studies and he was an attache to the Prime Minister’s Office from 1975-79. In the same year he began as a researcher at the Institute of International Affairs where he continued on until 1997. During this time he was also Director of the Swedish Institute for International Affairs (UI) from 1988-97 and also director of the prestigious London-based think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) from 1992-93. In 1994 Professor Huldt began his association with the Swedish National Defence College, first managing the Strategic Department before becoming a professor of Security Strategy in 1996 and later Head of the Graduate Institute of National Defence Education in 1997. His major fields of interest are contemporary history, European and global security, Swedish foreign and security policy, and the UN. His written work includes, ‘Three Worlds: World History 1945-65, which has been translated into seven languages.

Dr. Tomas RIES, Senior Lecturer, Swedish National Defence College

Dr. Tomas Ries was formerly Director of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. His main area of interest is the global security environment. He was Senior Researcher at the National Defense College in Finland from 1997-2004, focusing on globalization and security and EU and NATO affairs. From 1992-1997 he was Director of the International Training Course in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also worked as Researcher and then Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and the Institute for Defense Studies in Oslo where his focus was Nordic security and defense policies. Dr. Ries has written two books and over one-hundred articles and research studies. He holds a B.Sc. (Econ) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva University. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the Swedish National Defence College.

General (ret) Çevik BIR

Çevik Bir graduated from the Turkish Military Academy in 1971, from NATO Defense College in 1972 and from the Armed Forces Academy in 1973. From 1973 to 1976, he served at SHAPE; NATO’s headquarters in Belgium. He was promoted to brigadier general and commanded an armed brigade and division in Turkey. From 1987 to 1991, he served as major general. Bir became the commander of UN forces in Somalia in 1993. He became a four-star general and served three years as vice chairman of the Turkish Armed Forces, then was appointed commander of the Turkish First Army, in Istanbul. While he was vice chairman of the TAF, he signed the Turkish-Israeli Military Coordination agreement in 1996. He retired from the army in 1999.

Mr. Mark STOKES, Executive Director of Project 2049

Mark Stokes is the founder and formerly the president of Quantum Pacific Enterprises, an international consulting firm. He has served as executive vice president of Laifu Trading Company; a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and member of the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan. A 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran, Stokes also served as team chief and senior country director for the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Mongolia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He holds a B.A. from Texas A&M University, and graduate degrees in International Relations and Asian Studies from Boston University and the Naval Postgraduate School. He is fluent in Mandarin.

Professor ZHAO Suisheng, Executive Director of the Center for US-China Cooperation, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, Denver University

Professor Zhao is a founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China, as well as member of the Board of Governors of the US Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific (USCSCAP). He holds honorary professorships at a number of Chinese universities including Beijing University and the Shanghai Foreign Studies University. He has also been a Campbell National Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and worked as an associate professor at Washington College in Maryland and Colby College in Maine. Professor Zhao is the author of ten books and numerous academic publications.

Ambassador Lars-Gunnar WIGEMARK, Head of Security Policy Unit, DG External Relations, European Commission

Lars-Gunnar Wigemark attended Harvard University from 1980-84, graduating with a Bachelor of liberal arts with honors. In 1986 he enrolled in Flatcher’s School of Law and Diplomacy where he attained a Master of Law and Diplomacy. From 1988-90 he became an adviser on disarmament and armament control for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1990 he was appointed Second Secretary at the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade and from 1992-95, the First Secretary of the Embassy of Sweden in Washington. In 1995 he became Chief of the subdivision of the relations with NATO, USA and Canada and in the same year was appointed the Chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden. From 1996-99 he was the Chief Administrator of the Directorate General of Foreign Affairs of the European Commission, Brussels. And in 1999, he took on the role of consultant to the Special representative of the EU in Afghanistan and also became a Councilor of the Permanent representation of Sweden in the EU in Brussels. In 2003, he was assigned the post of Plenipotentiary Minister of the Embassy of Sweden in Russia. Currently he is the Head of the Security Policy Unit for the Directorate General of External Relations with the European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch.