Abstract

US President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47^th President of the United States on 20 January 2025. With a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives, what will the US policy bring? How will the new administration approach matters of global trade, climate, regional conflicts, and relations with other major powers such as China and Russia?  What will be the impact of these developments for Southeast Asia in particular?

Members of the RSIS Board of Governors will share their perspectives.

About the Speakers

Michael E. Brown is a Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He was Dean of the Elliott School from 2005 to 2015. He previously held appointments at Georgetown, Harvard, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He has been Editor of the journal Survival and a Co-Editor of the International Security, the leading academic journal in the security studies field. Professor Brown is the author of Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program, which won the Edgar Furniss National Security Book Award. He is the editor or co-editor of 23 books, including The Gender and Security Agenda: Strategies for the 21^st Century (2020). Professor Brown received his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University.

Bates Gill has a 35-year global career as an internationally-respected institution-builder, policy advisor, and scholar, with a particular focus on China and Indo-Pacific affairs.  He is currently a Senior Fellow with the National Bureau of Asian Research (Seattle and Washington, D.C.) and a Senior Fellow with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (Geneva).  He has served for 15 years as a member of the Board of Governors of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Among other positions, he previously served as the Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and inaugural Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.

Dr Gill has a long record of research and publication, resulting in more than 200 publications and research-related travel to more than 60 countries. His most recent book is Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions under Xi Jinping (Oxford University Press, 2022). Dr Gill received his Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Selena Ling is the Chief Economist for OCBC. As Global Head of Global Markets Research & Strategy, she leads a team that is responsible for macroeconomic insights, forecasts and trading recommendations for clients. The research coverage span foreign exchange, interest rates, corporate credit and macroeconomic commentary. Under her leadership, OCBC’s research capabilities have been greatly valued by customers and highly ranked in surveys.

She is a member of the OCBC Wealth Panel for Singapore and Malaysia, and Vice President and council member for the Economic Society of Singapore. She also sits on the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers (IVAS), Singapore, which was set up by the Singapore Accountancy Commission, as well as the Advisory Board of College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) Board of Governors. She was conferred the IBF Fellow Award in Financial Markets in 2017. Her research writings has been extensively quoted and published by prominent media across print, television and radio.

Prior to joining OCBC in August 2000, Selena was with the Fiscal Policy Unit under the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the Economics Department in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).

Stuart Croft has been the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick since 2016, following his tenure as the University’s Provost. Under his leadership, Warwick has seen significant growth, with the University’s overall income and research income both doubling. Notably, a third of all Warwick graduates in its history have completed their studies during his tenure.

A leading member of the prestigious Russell Group, Warwick now ranks sixth among these institutions in UK league tables. Its graduates command the highest salaries of any UK university outside London and the South East. In 2022, Warwick won the Times University of the Year for Teaching Quality Award and has been shortlisted for both the Times and the Daily Mail University of the Year Awards in 2024.

With four subjects ranked in the global top 25 by QS, Warwick earned the highest UK rating—the coveted ‘triple gold’—in the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), one of only four Russell Group universities to achieve this distinction.

His academic work is in the field of international security. He was honoured to be a Ngee Ann Kongsi fellow at RSIS ten years ago.

Peter Varghese has been Chancellor of The University of Queensland since 2016. Prior to this appointment, Mr Varghese held several senior positions in the Australian Public Service in Canberra and overseas.  He has served as Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, High Commissioner to India, High Commissioner to Malaysia, Director-General of Australia’s peak intelligence agency the Office of National Assessments, and Senior Advisor (International) to the Prime Minister.

Mr Varghese was the author of a comprehensive India Economic Strategy to 2035 commissioned by the Australian Prime Minister and submitted in July 2018.

 Mr Varghese was educated at The University of Queensland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a University Medal in history. He was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from The University of Queensland in 2013.

 Mr Varghese sits on the boards of CARE Australia and North Queensland Airports and chairs Asialink’s advisory council and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Editorial Advisory Board. He is also on the international governing board of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He was awarded the Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop Asialink Medal in 2019 in recognition of outstanding contributions to improving Australia-Asia relations.