Asia, America, and the Transformation of Geopolitics

USC U.S.-China Institute Board of Scholars member William Overholt will speak on US-China relations.

In this talk Dr. William Overholt draws on his newest book. He argues American security and prosperity now depend on Asia. Drawing on decades of political and business experience, he contends that obsolete Cold War attitudes tie the U.S. increasingly to an otherwise isolated Japan and obscure the reality that a U.S.-Chinese bicondominium now manages most Asian issues. Ascendant military priorities risk gratuitously polarizing the region, weaken the economic relationships that engendered American preeminence, and ironically enhance Chinese influence. As a result, despite its Cold War victory, U.S. influence in Asia is declining. Overholt doubts that democracy promotion will lead to superior development and peace, and forecasts a new era where Asian geopolitics could take a drastically different shape.

William H. Overholt is a member of the USC U.S.-China Institute Board of Scholars. He holds the Asia Policy Research Chair at RAND's Center for Asia Pacific Policy and is Director of the Center. He has long been an important analyst of Asia. Dr. Overholt is the author of the The Rise of China (W.W. Norton, 1993), which won the Mainichi News/Asian Affairs Research Center Special Book Prize. He has also written or co-written, Political Risk (Euromoney, 1982), Strategic Planning and Forecasting, with William Ascher (John Wiley, 1983), and Asia's Nuclear Future (Westview Press, 1976). In 1976 he founded the semi-annual Global Assessment, with Zbigniew Brzezinski, and edited it until 1988.

Dr. Overholt spoke in April 2007 at USCI's inaugural conference. A video of his talk is available at the conference website.

Please RSVP to uschina@usc.edu.

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