Global Forum  Panelists 

Yangyang Cheng, Research Scholar in Law and Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT. Dr. Cheng specializes in science and technology development in China and U.S.–China relations. 

Clara Park, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder & Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Duke University. Professor Park's research includes international trade and finance, climate change, and U.S. foreign economic policy in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Xiaobo Lü, Associate Professor, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin (and as of July 1, 2025, Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley). Professor Lü's research examines the intersections of fiscal policies, party-building, and state-society relations in authoritarian regimes, with a particular focus on China. 

Trisha Ray, Associate Director and Resident Fellow, GeoTech Center, Atlantic Council, Washington, DC. Ms. Ray's research focuses on the intersection of geopolitical and security trends with emerging technologies. 

Wen-hsin Yeh, Richard H. and Laurie C. Morrison Chair Professor & Distinguished Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. Professor Yeh is a social and political historian of culture and knowledge in late imperial and modern China, Taiwan, and maritime East Asia. 

Benjamin Leffel, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Leadership, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Leffel's research focuses on the science and practice of sustainability governance by cities, states, and corporations worldwide. 

Scott Kohler, Nonresident Scholar, Carnegie  California, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Kohler's research explores the nexus of technology, law, and public policy, with a focus on evolving approaches to regulation and structures of governance. 

Philip W. Yun, Co-President & Co-CEO, Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California (CCWA), San Francisco. With a career spanning four decades across the private and public sectors, Mr. Yun brings extensive experience in security affairs, foreign policy, diplomacy, international development, law, business, politics, and philanthropy. 

Associate Research Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. Professor Reddie studies the intersection of technology, politics, and security.

Elina​​​​ Noor, Senior Fellow, Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC. Ms. Noor focuses on developments in Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis on the impact of technology in reshaping power dynamics, governance, and nation-building in the region. 

Mary Kay Magistad is an award-winning journalist who lived and reported in East Asia for more than two decades, including in China for NPR (1995-99) and the public radio program The World (2003-13), and in Southeast Asia for NPR, The Washington Post, and others (1988-95). She has since created the critically acclaimed podcasts, On China’s New Silk Road and Whose Century Is It?), as well as the China Books podcast and COAL+ICE podcast during her tenure at Asia Society (2021-24), most recently as deputy director of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations. 

Irfan Nooruddin, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Indian Politics, School of Foreign Service & Department of Government, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Professor Nooruddin's expertise is in economic development, democratization, and civil conflict in the developing world. 

Basant Sanghera, Managing Principal, The Asia Group, Washington, DC, and former Policy Expert at the U.S. Department of State. Mr. Sanghera has extensive experience spearheading diplomatic initiatives to strengthen the U.S.-India strategic and commercial partnership. 

Nicolas Tackett, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in Chinese history (Tang, Song, Liao), the global Middle Ages, and Sino-steppe relations, with a focus on elites, political culture, empire, and identity.

Anka Lee, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, Office of the Secretary of Defense Washington, DC. Mr. Lee was responsible for advising senior department leadership on all policy matters pertaining to the development and implementation of defense strategies, plans, policies, and bilateral security relations for the East Asia region.

Kyoko Kuwahara, Research Fellow, The Japan Institute of International Affairs, Tokyo, Japan and Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Ontario, Canada. Ms. Kuwahara specializes in public diplomacy, strategic communications, disinformation and soft power strategies.

Lami Kim, Professor of Security Studies, Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, U.S. Department of Defense. Professor Kim's research interests include nuclear, emerging technologies and international security, and security issues in East Asia.  

Michaela Mattes, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. Professor Mattes specializes in International Relations, focusing on the intersection of international conflict and cooperation in her research and teaching.

Penny Edwards, Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Walter and Elise Haas Professor of Asian Studies and Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Specializing in Burma/Myanmar and Cambodia, Professor Edwards's research and teaching interests include British and French colonialism, Buddhism and nationalism; the politics of exile; the visual and performing arts, and Chinese diaspora. 

Susan D. Hyde, Co-Director, Institute of International Studies,  Robson Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. Focusing on international relations and comparative politics, her research examines on how international actors influence the internal politics of sovereign states, as well as threats to democracy globally, in the US, and caused by the US and other powerful states around the world.