Events

For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00 pm on Oct. 16 for campus access.

Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event. NOTE: You cannot access campus using the QR code from Eventbrite.

Speakers: 

Aaron Glasserman, Distinguished Fellow, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Erica Downs, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University

Richard Nephew, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University

Discussant and Moderator: 

Thomas J. Christensen, James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations; Director, China and the World Program, Columbia Universtiy

This panel will discuss the implications of the ongoing Iran war for China’s relationship with the Gulf countries. The speakers bring a mix of expertise in energy, economics, domestic politics, and international relations.   

Speakers' Bios:

Aaron Glasserman is a scholar of China and a Distinguished Fellow at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. His research examines Chinese politics, history, and society and what they mean for the rest of the world, particularly the Middle East as well as the United States. A frequent commentator on Chinese affairs and U.S.-China relations, Dr. Glasserman writes for policy and public audiences as well as scholarly ones: his work has appeared in The China Quarterly, The Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, The International Journal of Asian Studies, and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, ChinaFile, China Brief, and publications by the National Bureau of Asian Research. He has held research positions at Harvard University, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania and received a PhD in History from Columbia University in 2021 and a BA in Near Eastern Studies (summa cum laude) with certificates in Chinese and Arabic from Princeton University in 2013. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has also held non-resident and professional fellowships at the Wilson Center, the Center for a New American Security, the Institute for Global Affairs at Eurasia Group, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Erica Downs is a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, focusing on Chinese energy markets and geopolitics. She previously worked as a senior research scientist in the CNA Corporation’s China program, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group, a fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, an energy analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, and a lecturer at the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing, China.

Richard Nephew is a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. He is also the Bernstein Adjunct Fellow at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy. He has served in the U.S. government on multiple occasions, most recently as the U.S. Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption and, before that, the Deputy Special Envoy for Iran. He is the author of The Art of Sanctions (2018).

Thomas J. Christensen is Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the China and the World Program at Columbia University. He arrived in 2018 from Princeton University, where he was William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace and War, Director of the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, and faculty director of the Masters of Public Policy Program and the Truman Scholars Program. From 2006-2008 he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs with responsibility for relations with China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. His research and teaching focus on China’s foreign relations, the international relations of East Asia, and international security.

Professor Christensen's most recent book is Lost in the Cold War: The Story of Jack Downey, America’s Longest-Held POW (Columbia University Press, 2022). His earlier book, The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power (W.W. Norton), was an editors’ choice in the New York Times Book Review, a “Book of the Week” on CNN”s Fareed Zakaria GPS, and the Arthur Ross Book Award Silver Medalist for 2016 at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Professor Christensen has also taught at Cornell University and MIT. He received his B.A. with honors in History from Haverford College, M.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. He has served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, as co-editor of the International History and Politics series at Princeton University Press, and as a member of the Academic Advisory Committee for the Schwarzman Scholars Program. He is currently the Chair of the Editorial Board of the Nancy B. Tucker and Warren I. Cohen Book Series on the United States in Asia at Columbia University Press. Professor Christensen is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Non-Resident Senior Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He was presented with a Distinguished Public Service Award by the United States Department of State.

This event is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the China and the World Program.

Registration: To attend this event in-person, please register HERE.