Tuesday, October 12, 2021 | 8:00 AM EDT - 8:30 AM EDT

Zoom Interview | Theresa Fallon, Richard McGregor, Jason Kelly

On September 15, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden, Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new trilateral security partnership described by PM Morrison as “a next-generation partnership built on a strong foundation of proven trust.”

What does the partnership, known as AUKUS, suggest for the three countries involved, for France and the rest of the European Union, and for China and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region? The partnership has emerged at a time of flux in Europe; what do the shifting sands mean for relations between and among China and Australia, the U.K. and China, the EU and China, and the United States and all of the above?

In an interview conducted on October 12, 2021, Theresa Fallon and Richard McGregor analyze the significance of AUKUS in conversation with Jason Kelly.

Speakers

Richard McGregor

Richard McGregor is senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute, Australia’s premier foreign policy think tank, and the former Beijing and Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times. He is a senior associate (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. He was also a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center and George Washington University from 2014 to 2016. Mr. McGregor’s most recent book, Xi Jinping: The Backlash, was published in 2019. His other books include Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century (2017), which won the Prime Minister of Australia’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction; and The Party (2010), on the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party, which was translated into seven languages and chosen by the Asia Society and Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun as their book of the year.

Theresa Fallon

Theresa Fallon is the founder and director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies in Brussels. She is a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, the Loisach Group, the CEPS Task Force on AI and Cybersecurity, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations; a nonresident senior fellow of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs; and an adjunct professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. In 2021, she was named EU Influencer of the Year in trade and economics. Ms. Fallon’s current research is on EU-Asia relations, maritime security, global governance, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and great power competition. Previously, she was a researcher and consultant in Beijing (2003-2007) and the Moscow representative of PlanEcon, a research and consulting firm (1998-2003). She was educated at the University of Chicago, Loyola University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Moderator

Jason M. Kelly

Jason M. Kelly is a modern China historian focusing on 20th and 21st century Chinese foreign relations, commerce, and diplomacy; U.S.-China relations; and East Asian international history. He is an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC), an associate in research at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and a fellow in the NCUSCR Public Intellectuals Program. Before joining the NWC, Dr. Kelly was an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, he was a foreign service officer and worked at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Dr. Kelly’s first book, Market Maoists: The Communist Origins of China’s Capitalist Ascent (Harvard University Press, 2021), reveals the overlooked commercial relationships that linked the Chinese Communist Party to international capitalism from the early days of the Pacific War to the waning years of the Cultural Revolution. Dr. Kelly has a B.A. from Dartmouth University, an M.A. from Yale University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.