The Weatherhead East Asian Institute is pleased to lend its continuing support to the Columbia University Seminar on Southeast Asia in World Affairs, which is marking its 23rd year this fall. There will be three seminars per semester; they will take place on October 13, November 3, and December 1, 2005 and February 2, March 2, and April 6, 2006.

The seminar is concerned with the contemporary political economy of Southeast Asia. The seminar's members—policymakers from the public and private sectors, business people, journalists, and NGO representatives, as well as academics—give the seminar a strong policy orientation. There is a particular focus on issues that cross borders, both within and beyond the region, including Southeast Asian relations with the United States, Japan, China, and Russia.

This year's seminar will build on last year's successful series, which featured policy experts (such as Larry Niksch, a Policy Analyst for Asian Affairs, Defense and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service) and distinguished scholars (such as Carlyle Thayer, Professor of Politics at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, and David I. Steinberg, Distinguished Professor and Director of Asian Studies at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service) as speakers. The seminars addressed a broad range of relevant issues, from US and Chinese involvement in the region to questions of democratization and individual states’ political systems.

Attendance at University Seminars is by invitation only. If you are interested in attending a meeting of the University Seminar on Southeast Asia in World Affairs, please visit the University Seminars [link to USem home page, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/seminars/] web page for further information.