The Rumi Forum presented ‘China’s Rise: Implications for US Leadership in Asia’ with Dr. Robert G. Sutter Visiting Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Dr. Sutter discussed at the Rumi Forum the different strengths and weaknesses of both China and the United States. As Sutter explained, while the rise of China and its bilateral relations with many of its Asian neighbors is welcomed, it is ultimately not trusted. Likewise, he says, despite the US’s negative image throughout much of the region, many Asian countires depend on it for defense, seeing a powerful China as a threat to the stability of the region. Therefore, according to Dr. Sutter, the United States will continue to play an important role in the stability and future of Asia.
Robert Sutter has been Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, since 2001. Prior to taking this full-time position, Sutter specialized in Asian and Pacific Affairs and US foreign policy in a US government career of 33 years involving the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was for many years the Senior Specialist and Director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service. He also was the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US Government’s National Intelligence Council, and the China Division Director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter taught part-time for over thirty years at Georgetown, George Washington, Johns Hopkins Universities, or the University of Virginia. He has published 16 books, over 100 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent book is Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy since the Cold War (Rowman and Littlefield 2007) and his book manuscript The United States in Asia is to be published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2008.