Chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times
David E. Sanger is chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times. Mr. Sanger has reported from New York, Tokyo and Washington, covering a wide variety of issues surrounding foreign policy, globalization, nuclear proliferation and Asian affairs.
Twice he has been a member of Times reporting teams that won the Pulitzer Prize.
In 2011, Mr. Sanger was part of a team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for International Reporting for their coverage of the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.
Before covering the White House, Mr. Sanger specialized in the confluence of economic and foreign policy, and wrote extensively on how issues of national wealth and competitiveness have come to redefine the relationships between the United States and its major allies.
As a correspondent and then bureau chief in Tokyo for six years, he covered Japan’s rise as the world’s second largest economic power, and then its humbling recession. He also filed frequently from Southeast Asia, and wrote many of the first stories about North Korea’s secret nuclear weapons program in the 1990’s. He continues to cover proliferation issues from Washington.
Leaving Asia in 1994, Mr. Sanger took up the position of chief Washington economic correspondent, and covered a series of global economic upheavals, from Mexico to the Asian economic crisis. He was named a senior writer in March 1999, and White House correspondent later that year.
Mr. Sanger joined The Times in the Business Day section, specializing in the computer industry and high-technology trade. In 1986 he played a major role in the team that investigated the causes of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, writing the first stories about what the space agency knew about the potential flaws in the shuttle’s design and revealing that engineers had raised objections to launching the shuttle. The team won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. He was a member of another Pulitzer-winner team that wrote about the struggles within the Clinton administration over controlling exports to China.
Mr. Sanger appears regularly on public affairs and news shows. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group.
Born on July 5, 1960, in White Plains, N.Y., Mr. Sanger was educated in the public school system there and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1982.
The Honorable José Manuel Durao Barroso, is the former president of the European Commission. Barroso, former prime minister of Portugal, became president of the European Commission in 2004 and was reelected to the post in 2009. The European Commission is the executive body of the EU and is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union’s treaties and the day-to-day running of the EU.
After graduating in law from the University of Lisbon, Barroso completed a diploma in European studies at University of Geneva’s European University Institute and a master’s degree in political science from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Geneva, earning an honors in both. He then embarked on an academic career, working successively as a teaching assistant at the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon, a teaching assistant in the Department of Political Science, University of Geneva and as a visiting professor at the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In 1995, he became head of the Department of International Relations of Lusíada University in Lisbon.
Barroso’s political career began in 1980 when he joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD), a major social-democratic political party in Portugal. He was named president of the party in 1999 and was re-elected three times. During the same period, he served as vice president of the European People’s Party. As state secretary for foreign affairs and cooperation, he played a key role as mediator in the signing of the Bicesse Accords, which laid out a transition to multi-party democracy in Angola in 1991, and, as minister for foreign affairs, he was a driving force in the self-determination process in East Timor (1992-1995), a country in Maritime Southeast Asia. Under his leadership, the PSD won the general election in 2002, and Barroso was appointed prime minister of Portugal in April of that year. He remained in office until July 2004 when he was nominated by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament to the post of president of the European Commission.
Barroso has been awarded numerous honorary degrees and has received many international awards and honors
Member of Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers; Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Joseph S. Nye Jr., is an American political scientist and former Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard Univesity.He currently holds the position of University Distinguished Service Professor.
He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and earned a PhD in political science from Harvard.
He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. Besides, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, The British Academy, and a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.
The 2011 TRIP survey of over 1700 international relations scholars ranks Joe Nye as the sixth most influential scholar in the field of international relations in the past twenty years. In 2011, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers
He pioneered the theory of soft power, which is appeared in his book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics(2004). He also published other books: Understanding International Conflict (5th edition, 2004); and The Power Game: A Washington Novel (2004),The Powers to Lead (2008) and The Future of Power (2011).
President of the World Leadership Alliance Club of Madrid; former President of Latvia
Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga has been the President of the World Leadership Alliance Club of Madrid since 2014 and is former President of Latvia (1999-2007). She was instrumental in achieving membership in the European Union and NATO for her country, and was Special Envoy on UN reform among her international activities. Since 2007, she is an oft invited speaker on social issues, moral values, and democracy. She was Vice-chair of the Reflection group on the long term future of Europe, and chaired the High-level group on freedom and pluralism of media in the EU.
Having left Latvia as a child refugee to Germany in 1945, then French Morocco and Canada, she earned a Ph.D. in psychology (1965) at McGill University. After a distinguished career as Professor at the University of Montreal, she returned to her native country in 1998 to head the Latvian Institute.A year later she was elected President by the Latvian Parliament and re-elected in 2003.
She is member of four Academies, and Board member or patron of 30 international organizations, including the Board of Thinkers of the Boston Global Forum. She has received many highest Orders of Merit, as well as medals and awards, for distinguished work in the humanities and social sciences. She has published 14 books and authored over 200 articles, book chapters, reports, and audiovisual materials.
(January 12, 2016) – In a recent talk with Llewellyn King — editorial board member of Boston Global Forum and host of PBS’s White House Chronicle — about situation in the South China Sea, Senator John McCain thought that the U.S needs to build up its allies in the region militarily, conduct joint exercises and provide assistance in militarization to their allies’ navies so that they will have more maritime capability, are ways to manage the situation in the region.
Read the full story below.
Fiery Cross Reff has been transformed into an artificial island at least 3,000 yards long that experts say is big enough to include an airstrip and could become a Chinese command and control center for military operations in the area. Photo Credit: The Wall Street Journal.
Watch the interview here:
Llewellyn King: Senator, what are Chinese trying to do in the South China Sea. They appear to be stealing the whole ocean?
John McCain: I think that they’re trying to realize their many centuries ambition to be the dominant force in the region. I don’t think there’s any doubt that with this latest action of theirs has been accelerated over the last couple years as you know they are asserting a violation of all international law and sovereignty in part of the world where about 60-70 percent of the world’s economy travels. I was once told by the Lee Kuan Yew, the former great pioneer leader of Singapore that the Chinese will dominate the Western Pacific and they will tell us that we can have our way in the eastern Pacific and finally they view as you know they view the last 200 years as aberrations of history and a contradiction to their many centuries old being the dominant power in Asia.
Llewellyn King: There’s something fingers though about taking and at all something that is under water or water level at low tide level and building into an island and then claiming it as a sovereign territory. I’m not aware that that’s ever been pulled off by any country ever?
John McCain: No. But they’re certainly getting away with it just to show you how bizarre this administration is when we finally sailed the ship within the 12 mile limit. It was widely publicized throughout the world. In the Secretary of defense appeared before the armed services committee, he was asked about that, and he said he couldn’t confirm it, so I as chairman say Why would you not confirm something that’s all over the media, why would you do that, and he kinda equivocate again. The NY Times the next day said that they didn’t want to confess Corp confirm it because it would jeopardize the climate change talks with China. I mean this is just in a really bizarre.
Llewellyn King: Is their lead range we can bring to bear somewhere else in our relationship with China that caused them to back off this extraordinary act of aggression invite their neighbors to watch Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, all these countries that surround the South China Sea, and of course Japan if you send it into East China Sea.
John McCain: Well first of all, you know, the Chinese just announced they’re going to construct another aircraft carrier, there’s no better indication of their ambition to be able to have the ability to project power and then the acquisition of an aircraft carrier. The good news is that the Chinese have alarmed their neighbors to a point where they are now coalescing with us in a way that few years ago we wouldn’t think was possible. You had the Japanese and Korean finally have resolved this comfort women issue which plagued their relationship for year. I’ve just met with Foreign minister and Defense minister of Philippines. A decision made by Philippines Supreme court which will allow them to be much more active with US military exercises, even rotational basis, maybe. A Chinese behavior united ASEAN countries in a way that years ago we would not have thought possible. And even though people the conventional wisdom and the Chinese see around the corner of history and take a long view. Well, they alienated and alarm literally every one of their neighbors, not the least of which is Vietnamese.
Llewellyn King: We’ve had this rather tepid response with the freedom of navigation and as you described it, you know sort of denying it all that we’d even censorship through. Now we have a new dimension which is the aerial 10 is having its airspace violated while china say no. This is for Chinese airspace now because they have property out their way down 2010 kilometers away or something in the South China Sea. What should our response be to this?
John McCain: Of course we should condemn it for what it is and by the way, the Philippines have a case before the International court concerning Chinese violations and since the Chinese have said they would disregard any verdict. I think we know what the likely verdict is, but we have to strengthen those alliances, we have to have more training, such as we have at the base in Australia where we rotate in and out, not the old conventional base with school in the hospital but rotation ends with various units which training and exercises closer relations with them and condemnation to date Chinese are sensitive to world opinion and finally, if it’s absolutely necessary then we need to look at some of our relationships with China and it is unacceptable for any nation to act in violation of international law which they did when they killed in these islands and now obviously have weaponry and have landed aircraft on it.
Llewellyn King: That has multiple impacts. One of which is environmental of arron is a very sensitive areas, very margin, very important fishing area where something like a quarter of the world’s shipping parcels through the South China Sea. Is there leverage outside of Andy Lyons? Is there any leverage we can bring to bear quite separate modern dealings with China? China needs us, we will keep selling on things and buying things they make. Wouldn’t we find in some way of bringing them to heal those that were?
John McCain: I think there are ways that we need to explore but I would argue the first step is to unite the countries in the region using regional forums such as ASEAN to work in a more cooperative fashion, for example, again the Philippines are going to triple their spending on defense. We are now committed to helping them acquire maritime capability in the last defense bill. We lifted any restriction on maritime military equipment from Vietnamese, so that they will have more capability. In other words there’s a lot going on… and the straps.
Llewellyn King: Vietnam’s especially affected and it feels very vulnerable to...
John McCain: Vietnamese are frankly our new best friends. And that is because not only is there a threat now but they have a history with 2.000 years they were part of China, at least Chinese alleged that, so they feel particularly vulnerable and they are building up their military, and now we will be able to help them acquire maritime capabilities that they very badly need.
Llewellyn King: Senator, why is China making this move?
John McCain: Now, there’s a variety of reasons why china is acting now. One is perception of American weakness that what happened in the Middle East, in Syria, red line and other behavior reverberates around the world, including by the way in Ukraine. I think that they now reached a stage and militarily member done shopping have five priorities and military was the last one there now. Now they’re pursuing that fifth priority to wit the aircraft that we just saw… They are in the mode of becoming a maritime power but having being the superior force in western Pacific. There is no doubt about that. But let me also point out China’s economy is in trouble. The climate there, in Beijing, someday in can’t see a block. They’re growing older because of the one child policy.
There’re a lot of challenges that China faces but I don’t think there’s any doubt that the president ruler is carrying on in the tradition of Deng Xiaoping. And I know there’s a lot of corruption in China. But a lot of person tuitions have been rather selective and those who have been indicted or even Britain prison where possible competitors to present president of China, so they are measured in there, doing things but they’re not succeeding in, I believe, doing anything but in the long run just frightening and causing reaction throughout the region and alliances that you and I would not have contemplated 10 years ago.
Llewellyn King: So you think we have contained with alliances. Some people have talked about in equivalent of NATO in Asia which seems not quite fitting and a very extreme thing to do.
John McCain: I don’t think that they would favor the kind of NATO member. NATO was formed when shadow of the Soviet Union was literally on your doorstep. But I do believe there’re cooperative agreements. I do believe that now you’re gonna see Japan and South Korea working very closely together. And don’t forget India. They’re now got a Prime Minister in India who is very interested in Indian sovereignty and there are areas where both Indian and Chinese interests are at loggerheads. So again, I don’t think the Chinese are going to win over time. And I don’t think they’re going to act militarily. But the reactions have solidarity among all these nations.
Llewellyn King: Do you think any action we take in concert with other countries of Asia who call the Chinese to withdraw from the militarized islands.
John McCain: I think joint exercises. I think assisting them with militarized their navies which some of them are very badly lagging. I think Co-corporation I think we are based in Australia that’s a model for other countries to have bases.
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Llewellyn King is currently is the member of Boston Global Forum’s Editorial Board and host of PBS’s White House Chronicle.
(January 26, 2016) – Responding to the recent draft Investigatory Powers Bill that gives British government the power to prohibit companies from providing truly secure online communications, Jeremy Samide — the Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow and the lead consultant to SteathCare Labs — presented his view on the matter. The draft bill is expected to be introduced in Parliament early in 2016, according to Amie Stepanovich from The Christian Science Monitor.
Below is Jeremy’s view.
Photo: Jeremy Samide — the Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow and the lead consultant to SteathCare Labs in the Boston Global Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Day event on December 12, 2015 at Harvard University Faculty Club.
Encryption and the war on privacy continue to take center stage where ongoing debates and town hall style meetings dispute the pros and cons. This new bill drafted by the UK Government, dubbed the Investigatory Powers Bill, seems to be flexing its muscles in an attempt to control the Internet. This legislation is looking to expand its surveillance powers and blatantly prohibit any company around the world from using strong encryption for the safety, security and protection of their communications, data and the ultimate privacy of their customers. This type of legislation could become self serving and significantly weakens our defenses and fundamentally breaks down certain human rights protections such as our privacy over the Internet. The development of stronger encryption is on the rise as organizations, journalists and everyday people are desperate for new ways to maintain their privacy from prying eyes like malicious hackers, unfriendly governments, thieves and scammers. Crackable, weak encryption is not the answer that will make us safer as many Governments believe to be the case. This will only enable the hackers and cyber criminals in their pursuit to attack our critical infrastructure such as financial, energy, transportation, defense, communications, emergency services, food and agriculture, water, government and other sectors. Hackers today are relentless, motivated, well funded and in most cases, state sponsored and will stop at nothing to disrupt, destroy and or steal our data. Today, federal law enforcement, legislators and governments around the world continue to grapple over the encryption debate. Both the FBI Director, James Comey and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have testified that encryption continues to be ‘an insurmountable barrier for legal and national security investigators.’ As Sen. Feinstein put it, ‘encryption ought to be able to be pierced.’ Allowing federal law enforcement or even the US Government to create or hold back doors into encryption technology has been heavily debated this past year. The argument presented is that if federal law enforcement or any government would possess the keys to encryption only weakens the companies that develop it as well as the hundreds of millions of users that use it. The FBI, US Government as well as scores of other foreign governments have clearly demonstrated their lack of cyber security prowess by losing millions of sensitive records, defaced websites and unauthorized access to sensitive systems in 2015 alone. Giving these institutions the ‘keys to the kingdom’ could have serious repercussions. As governments and legislators continue to draft and debate policy that is masked as mass surveillance, the community at large will continue the development of stronger encryption, untraceable messaging systems and true anonymity over the Internet causing an epic war on privacy and security.
Even in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks last year, France recently rejected an amendment to its Digital Republic Bill insisting mandatory hardware backdoors to bypass encryption.
Privacy concerns loom in the final throws of the US cyber security information sharing bill (CISA). Final passage of a law to thwart cyber attacks has been delayed as legislators battle over how to best protect the privacy of American’s personal information. In the past year, Congress has past three versions of the bill in the wake of high profile cyber attacks on US companies and the federal government. Headlining cyber attacks like OPM, Target, Home Depot, Sony, T-Mobile, JP Morgan and the Internal Revenue Service are amongst the few that have triggered the debate on Capitol Hill. Albeit widespread agreement in Congress for the need to pass a comprehensive cyber security bill, a final compromise is taking much longer than expected due to disagreements over which elements have the strongest policy provisions. It has been widely known and argued by many security experts that this bill will be ‘dead on arrival’ as governments, the intelligence communities, the military and federal law enforcement agencies tend to share very little with each other, let alone the public. Although sharing information under this bill is voluntary, some privacy experts argue that this newly drafted cyber security legislation is more of a mass surveillance bill than an information sharing initiative. Historically, the government does not play well with the private sector when it comes to sharing intelligence deemed critical in the eyes of Defense, Intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Privacy needs to be of the utmost importance of any cyber bill that is drafted.
California is contemplating banning the sale of encrypted smartphones. A state in which many technology giants call headquarters, like Apple and Google, are facing legislation that would ban the sale of devices that come with unbreakable encryption. As a part of the legislation, a smartphone that could not be decrypted ‘on demand’ would subject the seller to a $2,500 fine. Should the bill become a law, companies like Apple and Google would be banned from selling iPhones and Android devices on their own turf. You have to appreciate the irony here, not only for these two companies but all of the other technology companies that reside in California that participate in developing strong encryption that integrate with these devices as well as many others.
(January 26, 2016) – The Boston Global Forum (BGF) has introduced the BGF-G7 Summit Initiative, in which we will cooperate with Japan – as the summit’s host, to convene leading scholars and business, government, technology and other leaders to seek solutions to pressing global issues involving peace, security and development. The G7 represents the seven leading industrial democracies.
Proposals from the initiative will be sent to the national leaders at this year’s G7 Summit, to be held in Japan on May 26-27. Based in Boston and Cambridge, Mass., the Boston Global Forum brings together thought leaders from around the globe to participate in forums to discuss critical world issues.
Photo: Four moderators of the dialogs (from left to right): Gov. Michael Dukakis, a co-founder and the chairman of the Boston Global Forum; Prof. Joseph Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University; Jose Manual Barroso, former president of the European Commission; and Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of the World Leadership Alliance Club de Madrid and former president of the Latvia.
The initiative will include 60-minute-long online dialogues featuring one speaker in each discussion – usually an internationally recognized scholar or government, business or technology leader – who will present his/her perspective on an issue, followed by interactions among 100 excellent discussants (of a wide range of ages and backgrounds) participating online from various locations around the world.
The discussion will continue as participants send questions and opinions to each other by email. The Boston Global Forum’s Special Editorial Board will gather their insights and send them to the speaker.
There will be 12 of these dialogues, with the first on Feb. 2 and the final conference to be held on May 9 at the Harvard University Faculty Club, when the most promising ideas from these dialogues will be summarized and then reported to the national leaders meeting in Japan.
A similar program will be held every year before each G7 summit, in which we will cooperate with the host country, with a particular issue to be selected as the focus. This year’s main topic will be Strategies for Combating Cyberterrorism.
Another mission this year will be on how to promote a sense of global citizenship and mutual responsibility. This project will include collaboration with the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. We call it the Global Citizenship Education for Peace, Security and Development program. We will also cooperate with the Japanese government in organizing an online dialogue on “The Role of Japan in Peace, Security and Development in the World Today.’’
Our distinguished moderators at these forums will include former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, a co-founder and the chairman of the Boston Global Forum; Prof. Joseph Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University; Jose Manual Barroso, former president of the European Commission; and Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of the World Leadership Alliance Club de Madrid and former president of the Latvia.
Other distinguished professors as well as several people named by Time Magazine as among the 100 most influential people in the world, and some people listed by Foreign Policy magazine as among the 100 top global thinkers, will join in building the initiatives.
As a part of the initiative, the BGF-G7 Summit Initiative weekly newsletter has been launched as of Jan. 26. It will provide fresh reportage and commentary from experts around the world.
History of the Boston Global Forum
The Boston Global Forum (BostonGlobalForum.org) was co-founded three years ago by former Democratic presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who is now a Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University; Prof. John Quelch, the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School; Prof. Thomas Patterson, the Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Nguyen Anh Tuan, the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Boston Global Forum, and the founder and chairman of VietNamNet Media Company and VietNet, the first Internet Service Provider in that nation.
(BGF) – At a joint interview with Nihon Keizai Shinbun and The Financial Times, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, underscored his belief that the G7 nations should lead the destabilizing world on a path to peace.
Prime Minister Abe added that cooperation with Russia is indispensable when it comes to combating extremists such as the Islamic State (ISIS) and in dealing with Middle Eastern instability. He has expressed strong interest in visiting Russia before the next G7 convention (Ise Shima Summit) that convenes in May.
He told journalists that the international situation is becoming increasingly unstable due to the rise of ISIS and confusion in Middle East. As the U.S. is becoming more passive in dealing with international affairs, there have been more incidences of international law violations such as Russia’s annexation of Crimea and China’s expansion in the South China Sea.
The Prime Minister suggested that the G7 Isa Shima Summit cover the uncertain world economy, terrorism, North Korea, problems in the Middle East, radicalism, climate change and the world’s poverty stricken population. He urged G7 countries to act in unity to show the world a course of positive action.
He emphasized that the G7 Summit is the place where the champions of freedom, fundamental human rights, and governance by law, and universal rights meet. He acknowledged, however, that it is becoming more difficult for the G7 to solve the problems of terrorism and instability in the Middle East as well as to call for self-restraint by China and Russia. With this in mind, the Prime Minister considers it essential for G7 countries, that share the common values, to unite under the leadership of the United States.
To deal with tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as the war between Syria and ISIS, it is important, not only to have G7 involvement, but to have constructive involvement by Russia as well. With this in mind Prime Minister Abe suggested he visits Russia or that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visits Japan to further this objective.
He also questioned China’s land reclamation in the South China Sea and the one- sided development of natural resources in the East China Sea. The threats China poses to world order are unforgivable, he said adding, that Japan will join in a united front with its allies on this issue.
On the Chinese economy, Prime Minister Abe noted that although fluctuations of RMB and share price in China are wide, the economy is steady and looks forward to steady economic growth.
With regard to North Korea’s nuclear test, he said Japan would deliver a resolution in the U.N. calling for effective measures to dissuade North Korea from such actions. Japan will also establish stricter sanctions of its own in response to the nuclear tests. He also said the stage for a meeting with Kim is not yet set and denied any plans to meet Kim Jung Un.
Reducing deflation, which has been a major goal since the start of Abe’s second term in office, is expected to occur over time, he said.
Regarding the need for further monetary easing by the Bank of Japan (BoJ), he said that the BoJ and the Government will try their best but the bases are still the policies set out in the three “arrows” of Abenomics.
He considers it is important to increase the productivity through reforms to achieve the three major targets, one of which is 600 trillion yen GDP.
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Mr. Katuyoshi Kondoh of Nihon Keizai and Mr. Lionel Barbar of FT conducted the interview, which have since become the same media group.
The Japanese government unveiled the official logo for the G7 Japan 2016 Ise-Shima Summit on January 4. The colorful logo was selected from thousands of entries submitted by elementary, junior high and high school students from across Japan.
The winning design features a red disc at the center which represents the circle of the sun and features in Japan’s national flag. This central motif is circled by cherry blossom petals – an iconic symbol of Japan. The petals signify the seven participating G7 countries of Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The blue crescent in the background represents the ocean surrounding Ise-Shima – the venue of the G7 Japan 2016 Summit. The young artist evokes the symbol of a globally interconnected ocean in the hope that the nations of the world will unite for peace.
