Douglas Paal, a veteran policy expert on Asia, and Evan Osnos, an award-winning international journalist, will speak this spring at the University of Chicago as part of the Paulson Institute’s Contemporary China Series.
In his talk, entitled “President Obama’s Trip to Asia: Legacy or Lost Opportunity?” Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, will provide insights into President Obama’s four-nation tour of Asia. Obama’s weeklong trip at the end of April covers Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan and South Korea. Paal’s event will take place at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 30 at the Quadrangle Club.
The former vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, Paal served as director of the American Institute in Taiwan. He was on the National Security Council staffs of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, first as director of Asian Affairs and later as senior director and special assistant to the president. He also held posts in policy planning at the State Department and at U.S. embassies in Singapore and Beijing, and served as a senior analyst for the CIA.
Evan Osnos, a Washington, D.C-based reporter for The New Yorker, was a correspondent in the magazine’s Beijing bureau from 2008 to 2013. He is author of the forthcoming book, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China. The book, which will be released in May, traces the rise of the individual in China, and the clash between aspiration and authoritarianism.
Prior to The New Yorker, Osnos served as the Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he contributed to a series that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is a contributor to This American Life and Frontline, and has received the Asia Society’s Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia, the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and a Mirror Award for profile writing.
Osnos will discuss his new book at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, May 21 at the Quadrangle Club.
The Paulson Institute’s Contemporary China Series, free and open to the public, brings together experts from across professions, perspectives and disciplines—including from academia, government, think tanks, journalism and industry—for talks and discussions on contemporary China.
Located at the University of Chicago, the Paulson Institute is an independent center whose mission is to spur creativity and innovation between the United States and China through programs on urban sustainability, cross-border investment, entrepreneurship and business best practices. The institute’s programs encourage partnership between Chinese and American businesses, non-governmental organizations and governments, especially at the state and local levels.
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
