Organizer: Asia Society Policy Institute
Type/Location: Virtual
Description:
The military coup in Myanmar sparked a deadly civil war, which in its fifth year has pushed refugees into neighboring countries and caused an uptick in transnational crime through scam centers. The war has also tested the ability of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to identify durable solutions. Although Southeast Asian leaders recently produced a joint statement on a ceasefire in Myanmar, the intergovernmental organization has not been able to enforce a cessation in the fighting.
To make sense of the complex factors at play in Myanmar and the regional response, join the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) for a timely discussion on the ever-changing military situation on the ground and the impact of ASEAN on the conflict. The virtual discussion will feature Ambassador Derek Mitchell, Senior Adviser to the President and Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C., and Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, professor at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok; moderated by Meghan Murphy, ASPI Schwarzman Fellow.
About the Speakers:
Derek Mitchell is a senior adviser to the President and Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. Between 2018 and 2023, Ambassador Mitchell was president of the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based non-profit, non-government organization dedicated to supporting democratic development worldwide. From 2011-16, he served as U.S. special envoy and then ambassador to Burma (Myanmar), the first in 22 years, during a historic period in the country’s nascent democratic transition. From 2009-11, Ambassador Mitchell oversaw the Obama Administration Defense Department’s Asia policy as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, and acting Assistant Secretary. Mitchell had previously served at Defense as Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs during the Clinton Administration, and from 2001-2009 served as senior fellow for Asia in CSIS’s International Security Program where he founded the Center’s Southeast Asia Program. Ambassador Mitchell is currently Practitioner Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Democratic Resilience and writing a book about his experience in Burma, entitled “Myanmar Days: A Chronicle of Diplomacy and Democracy,” to be published by Columbia University Press.
Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak is Professor of International Relations at Chulalongkorn University’s faculty of political science and former Director (2006-2022) and currently Senior Fellow at its Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok. Thitinan has held visiting positions at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, University of Victoria in New Zealand, and Yangon University, and currently serves on several editorial boards of academic journals, including Journal of Democracy. He has authored a host of articles, books, book chapters and over 1,000 opinion articles in mass media such as Project Syndicate, The Bangkok Post, Nikkei Asian Review, The Straits Times, South China Morning Post, International New York Times, and Financial Times. As an analyst on Thailand/ASEAN-Southeast Asia, his comments and views have appeared regularly in international media, including BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, Bloomberg, CNBC, NHK, DW, among others. Prior to his academic and think-tank career, Thitinan worked for the BBC World Service and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in London. His current work focuses on the comparative politics and geopolitics/geoeconomics of ASEAN/Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific in view of the US-China rivalry and conflict.
In 2015, he was recognised for excellence in opinion writing by Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA). During 2017-present, he holds the appointment as International Advisory Board Member of Asia-New Zealand Foundation (ANZF). In March 2018, he was appointed ASEAN@50 Fellow by New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade. In May 2019, he was selected as Australia-ASEAN Fellow at Sydney’s Lowy Institute. From 2021-present, he is senior advisor for geopolitics with Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). From January 2023-present, he is independent expert of ADMM+ Cybersecurity and Information Centre of Excellence (ACICE). In January 2024, Thitinan was awarded a commendation by the Japanese government for his work on Japan-Thailand and Japan-ASEAN relations. During October 2024—March 2025, he was a visiting professor at the Southeast Asia Centre (SEAC) of the London School of Economics. For the past two decades, he has been a columnist with The Bangkok Post. Thitinan completed degrees at the University of California at Santa Barbara (with Distinction) and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with a PhD from London School of Economics which won the UK’s best dissertation prize in 2002.
Meghan Murphy (moderator) is a Schwarzman Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) in New York, where she focuses on Southeast Asia and geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Prior to joining ASPI, Meghan held a number of positions related to Southeast Asia policy. These include serving as a research intern with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a participant in the Young Professional Program at the East-West Center, and an intern with the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. She also interned in the Political and Economic Affairs section at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh and has worked on the staff of two members of Congress.
Meghan received her MA in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University as a part of the Schwarzman Scholars scholarship and her BA in International Relations from Brown University.
Registration:
To attend the event online, please register here.