Date and Time
May 15, 2008
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Availability
RSVP Required

Speaker
Victor Cha - Director, Asian Studies at Georgetown

Due to unexpected circumstances Dr. Cha has had to postpone his visit to Stanford. We apologize for any inconvenience this cancellation has caused.

Sport is no less political then politics itself. Whether it is a boycott of the Olympics; Jesse Owens winning gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Games; a unified Korean team winning the world ping-pong championships; the global recognition enjoyed by the name 'Muhammed Ali' (over that of the American President); or Matsuzaka playing for a major league baseball team in Boston. Sports have been a prism through which globalization has been reflected and political intentions have been communicated both willfully and unintentionally.

But how do we think systematically about the role of sports in international affairs? The question seems appropriate given that in August 2008 the biggest country in the world will host the world's biggest sporting event. The Beijing Olympics promises to be the largest, most expensive, and most widely-viewed Games in modern history. Should we think about these Games as anything more than sport, and if so, what will be the meaning of these two weeks of sports in world politics? How will the Chinese seek to present themselves to the world?

Professor Victor D. Cha (Ph.D. Columbia, MA Oxford, BA Columbia) left the White House in May 2007 after serving since 2004 as director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. At the White House, he was responsible primarily for Japan, the Korean peninsula, Australia/New Zealand and Pacific Island nation affairs. Dr. Cha was also the deputy head of delegation for the United States at the Six Party Talks in Beijing, and received two Outstanding Service commendations during his tenure at the NSC. He returned to Georgetown where he holds the D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies in the Department of Government and the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Cha is the award-winning author of Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press) (winner of the 2000 Ohira Book Prize) and co-author of Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies (Columbia University Press, 2004). He has written articles on international relations and East Asia in journals including Foreign Affairs, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Survival, International Studies Quarterly, and Asian Survey. Professor Cha is a former John M. Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard University, two-time Fulbright Scholar, and Hoover National Fellow and CISAC Fellow at Stanford University.

He serves as an independent consultant, and has testified before Congress on Asian security issues. He has been a guest analyst for various media including CNN, ABC Nightline, CBS Morning Show, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, BBC, and National Public Radio. Until 2004, he directed the American Alliances in Asia project at Georgetown. He is currently writing a book Beyond the Final Score: Sports Diplomacy in Asia and the Beijing Olympics. From 2007 he will be director of the Asian Studies Program at Georgetown.

Location
Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall
616 Serra St., 3rd floor
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
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FSI Contact
Neeley Main