EVENTS

Since he began his second term, Donald John Trump has sought a summit meeting with Xi Jinping to create a grand bargain between the two superpowers. The stakes are especially high now given that the United States is seeking to deal with three strategic challenges—China, Russia, and the Middle East—simultaneously. A grand bargain with China would give the United States breathing space to resolve the other two disputes. Breathing space, however, does not remove the fundamental differences between the two countries particularly the fact that the United States is in no hurry to cede unipolarity, is willing to use military force in the Taiwan issue, and wants to retain a technological edge over Beijing. Negotiating these political, military, economic, and technological challenges, therefore, will be at the center of the discussions between the two leaders. The talk will examine what are the key objectives of the United States, to what extent they have been met by the Chinese, and what do any mutually accepted arrangements mean for other nations.

Speaker

Amit Gupta was on the faculty of the Department of International Security at the U.S. Air Force Air War College, Maxwell AFB and is now a Senior Fellow with the National Institute for Deterrence Studies, USA. He specializes in international security affairs, the arms trade, and US National security policy. Amit is author, co-author or editor of the following books: Building an Arsenal: The Evolution of Regional Power Force Structures (Praeger), India’s Nuclear Security (Lynne Rienner), The Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific: Maritime Challenges, Opportunities, and Policies (Routledge), and Air Forces: Next Generation (Ashgate) which was put on the Chief of the UK Royal Air Force Reading List for 2022. He has published in Asian Survey, Security Dialogue, The National Interest, Comparative Strategy, and PRISM. Dr. Gupta was educated at the University of Delhi and the Australian National University, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. In the realm of popular culture, he has written in academic journals and magazines on Science Fiction and Politics, the political economy of James Bond, international cricket, and the globalization of sports. In his spare time, he coached the Air War College Soccer Team for the Jim Thorpe Inter-Services Competition held at Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Chair

Alka Acharya is currently the Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. She was previously Professor and Chairperson at the Centre for East Asian Studies (Chinese Studies), School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). From 2005-2013, she was the Editor of the journal China Report and had an earlier stint as a full-time Director and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, from 2014-2017. Her current research focuses on India- China-Russia Trilateral Cooperation and comparing the Indian and Chinese strategies of regional engagement.

Please register for the lecture here