School of Public Policy and Council of American Ambassadors Address the State of the Korean Peninsula

The School of Public Policy and the Council of American Ambassadors partnered to present a conference on the Korean peninsula on October 9. The conference brought together former U.S. ambassadors, their guests, and Pepperdine students and faculty.

Dean James R. Wilburn and former U.S. ambassador to Singapore Timothy A. Chorba opened the program, which featured remarks and panel discussions on the political, economic, and social conditions in the two Koreas; the North Korea nuclear question; and China’s posture towards the Korean peninsula.

Participants included: Dan Caldwell, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Seaver College; Robert Kaufman, professor of public policy at the School of Public Policy; Blaine Harden, journalist and author of Escape from Camp 14, the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person to have been born and raised in a North Korean prison camp—and to have escaped to the West; David Kang, professor of international relations and professor of business, USC; Spencer H. Kim, former U.S. representative to APEC’s (National Center for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Business Advisory Council; and Xiao-huang yin, chair and professor, American Studies Department, Occidental College.

In addition, assistant U.S. trade representative Wendy Cutler discussed the recently-concluded U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the ongoing Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. Former ambassador C. Donald Johnson, director of the Dean Rusk Center at the University of Georgia School of Law and formerly the U.S. congressman for the 10th District of Georgia and the chief textile negotiator in the office of U.S. Trade Representative, moderated Cutler’s presentation.

Glen A. Holden, former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, Pepperdine regent, and cochair of the Campaign for Pepperdine, offered concluding remarks.

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