Speakers

Richard Gowan is Program Director for Global Issues and Institutions at the International Crisis Group (ICG). He was Crisis Group’s UN Director from 2019 to 2025.  He was previously a Consulting Analyst with ICG in 2016 and 2017. He has worked with the European Council on Foreign Relations, New York University Center on International Cooperation and the Foreign Policy Centre (London). He has taught at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Stanford in New York. He has also worked as a consultant for the organisations including UN Department of Political Affairs, the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rasmussen Global, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Global Affairs Canada. From 2013 to 2019, he wrote a weekly column (“Diplomatic Fallout”) for World Politics Review.

Huong Le Thu is Deputy Director of Asia at the International Crisis Group (ICG). She has been working in the fields of international security and foreign policy across academia, think tanks and international organisations for nearly two decades. She conducts research on different aspects of security, diplomacy and politics of Asia. She has lived and worked primarily in Northeast and Southeast Asia, including Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. Huong has taught at universities, including the Australian National University, National Chengchi University, and worked with a number of top think tanks in the region, including ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Huong, who speaks five languages and has published in four of them, is a prolific writer and influential analyst. Her work frequently appears in policy-makers must-read lists and regularly features in global and regional media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Financial Times, among others. Huong has a PhD degree in International Relations, and Masters and Honors in Political Science and Asian Studies.