(Courtesy Canberra Times, September 4, 2013)

The Asia Program and the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States invite you to the inaugural lecture in a new series examining the responses of Asian nations to Chinese and American interests in the region, Weighing the Rebalance, 2013 to 2015.

Like other Asia-Pacific nations, Australia is hopeful that the regional interests of its treaty ally, the United States, and its most important trading partner, China, can be balanced to its own long-term advantage. Professor of Strategic Studies at Australian National University Hugh White has been a leading advocate for the view that Australia cannot hope to maintain a neutral distance between the United States and China; it will have to choose between them.  His analysis, if correct, holds major implications not only for Australia, China, and the United States, but for every Asia-Pacific nation. Professor White presented his views in a recent article in Foreign Affairs.

Weighing the Rebalance is a Wilson Center initiative that will bring a series of experts to Washington to analyze the Chinese and American roles in the Asia-Pacific from the viewpoints of countries whose futures will be shaped by Sino-U.S. competition and cooperation in the region. Country-focused presentations will be supplemented by programs on trade issues, military affairs, energy and the environment, and soft power. We hope you will join us over the next two years for these discussions and debates. At the close of the public series, the Kissinger Institute and the Asia Program will host a conference on Weighing the Rebalance, which will result in publications and briefings for policymakers in Washington and Beijing.

We hope you will join us and offer your own views on these vital issues.