The Camden Conference will present speaker Professor Kristin Vekasi of the University of Maine at the Rockland Public Library on Thursday evening, September 7, at 6:30pm. Professor Vekasi will speak on how Chinese domestic politics and American national interests have set a course for potential conflict over the South China Sea. The talk will unpack the complex political and economics conflicts in the region, and discuss policy options to deescalate military tensions and increase peaceful cooperation. This program is free and open to all.

Professor Vekasi received her PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has conducted extensive research and fieldwork across Northeast Asia, particularly China and Japan. She has been a visiting fellow with the Japan Foundation at Tokyo University, a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellow at the Harbin Institute of Technology, and a Fulbright Fellow at Tohoku University. She is a member of the US-Japan Network for the Future through the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Foundation and Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership. Her research focuses on China-Japan relations, and how multinational firms manage political risk in a globalized and politicized world. Her most recent publication in the Chinese Journal of International Politics discusses how private firms use cultural exchange programs to improve tense international relations.

This presentation is hosted by the Rockland Public Library and offered as a free community event in in anticipation of the 31st Annual Camden Conference –New World Disorder and America’s Future, February 16-18, 2018.