2012 Lund Critical Debate will focus on the role of China as a superpower

The 2012 Lund Critical Debate will take place on Wednesday, November 14, at 5:00pm in G10 Biotechnology Building.  David Lampton, Dean of Faculty, George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies, and Director of the China Studies Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), will debate Aaron Friedberg, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, on the topic "Is China the new superpower?"  Allen Carlson, Professor of Government at Cornell University, will serve as the moderator for the event.

Dr. Lampton also serves as a consultant to the Kettering Foundation and the law firm of Akin Gump in addition to his positions at Johns Hopkins University. Before assuming those posts he was president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations in New York City from 1988-1997. From May 1998 to May 2006 he also was affiliated with The Nixon Center as the founding director of its Chinese Studies Program. Prior to 1988, Dr. Lampton was founding director of the China Policy Program at the American Enterprise Institute and associate professor of political science at Ohio State University. Lampton is the author of numerous books and articles on Chinese domestic and foreign affairs, with more popular articles appearing in Foreign Affairs, Time Magazine (Asia), Foreign Policy, The National Interest, The New York Times, The Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Newsday, Caijing (Finance), People's Daily, and Cankao Xiaoxi (Reference News).

Dr. Lampton received his Ph.D. and undergraduate degrees from Stanford University where he graduated with great distinction. An Honorary Senior Fellow of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Far Eastern Studies (1995), Dr. Lampton has lived in the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong where he was a Fulbright dissertation research grantee in the early 1970s. In June 2010 he received the Inaugural Year Scalapino Prize awarded by the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for "exceptional contributions to America's understanding of the vast changes underway in Asia and commitment to bridging the gap between academe and policy." He is the recipient of a 2011 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio "Residency Award."

Dr. Aaron Friedberg is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. He first joined the Princeton faculty in 1987, and was Director of Princeton's Research Program in International Security at the Woodrow Wilson School from 1992-2003, as well as Acting Director and then Director of the Center of International Studies at Princeton in 2000-2001 and 2002-2003. From June 2003 to June 2005 he served as a Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President. In November 2006 he was named to the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion. He is a former fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Harvard University's Center of International Affairs.

Dr. Friedberg is the author of two books, The Weary Titan, 1895-1905: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline (Princeton University Press, 1988) and In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America's Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy (Princeton University Press, 2000). His areas of interest include international relations, international security in East Asia, foreign policy, and defense policy. He earned his A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Allen Carlson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government, who received his PhD in Political Science from Yale University in 2000. His research interests include international relations, Chinese foreign policy and Asian security. He recently co-edited (with J.J. Suh and Peter Katzenstein) Rethinking Security in East Asia (Stanford University Press, 2004). Professor Carlson is also the author of Unifying China, Integrating with the World: The Chinese Approach to Sovereignty During the Reform Era (Stanford University Press). In addition, he has published articles in the Journal of Contemporary China and Pacific Affairs, and written monographs for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the East-West Center Washington. He regularly teaches classes on China's foreign relations, Asian security, Chinese nationalism, globalization, and international relations theory. During the 2004-2005 academic year Professor Carlson was a recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education. He used the fellowship to conduct research while a visiting scholar at Peking University. In 2005 Carlson was also selected to participate in the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' prestigious Public Intellectuals Program. He currently serves as an adviser to the China-Asia Pacific Studies major and the East Asia Program.

The Lund Critical Debates Series builds on the success of the Foreign Policy Distinguished Speaker Series by bringing to campus speakers of prominence in international affairs who can address topical issues from a variety of perspectives. The series hosts a debate each academic year, typically with two to three outside experts and a distinguished Cornell faculty member as moderator. Topics and speakers of debates are determined by the Foreign Policy Network, and reflect topical issues and current events.