© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

World Affairs

Monday, March 27 at 2:00 pm 

Asia’s Rise in a Year of Uncertainty: A Dialogue with The Honorable Kevin Rudd

Join World Affairs and Asia Society Northern California for a dialogue with The Honorable Kevin Rudd, president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and former prime minister of Australia, who will look at some of the critical issues facing the Asia-Pacific region today and the challenges likely to emerge in the coming years. While Asia is home to some of the world’s fastest growing economies and a young, dynamic population, the region is also confronted with a number of issues that threaten to stymie the region’s rise. Growing nationalism, enduring security flashpoints in the Korean peninsula and the South China Sea, an ascendant China and climate change are just some of the factors that will demand attention and action in the coming years. The election of Donald Trump as the new U.S. president adds unpredictability to the region given his campaign promises to upend America’s role in the alliance infrastructure that underpins security, economic and political relationships in the region and the world.

Rudd served as Australia’s 26th prime minister (2007-2010, 2013) and as foreign minister (2010-2012). As prime minister and foreign minister, Rudd was active in global and regional foreign policy leadership. He was a driving force in expanding the East Asia Summit to include both the U.S. and Russia in 2010, and initiated the concept of transforming the EAS into a wider Asia Pacific Community. On climate change, Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2007 and legislated in 2008 for a 20 percent mandatory renewable energy target for Australia. Rudd also drove Australia’s successful bid for its non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2012-2014. Domestically, Rudd delivered Australia’s formal national apology to indigenous Australians. In education, his government introduced Australia’s first-ever nationwide school curriculum, undertook the biggest-ever capital investment program in Australian schools with the building of thousands of new state-of-the-art libraries across the country, as well as introducing the first-ever mandatory national assessment system of literacy and numeracy standards.

Speaker:
Kevin Rudd
President, Asia Society Policy Institute; Former Prime Minister of Australia