Abstract

President Biden has called the competition between democracy and autocracy a defining challenge of the 21st century. This perspective is controversial among some, particularly in Asia but Biden is correct and Asian strategists need to begin adjusting their thinking accordingly. This seminar will address why this is so: why democracy matters, what’s at stake, and specifically why promotion of democratic norms is far from the idealistic (or imperialistic) endeavor commonly assumed. The seminar will also address the several misperceptions that exist about what a democracy support agenda involves while making the case for its essential strategic importance for shaping a healthy, prosperous, secure and just international order for nations large and small in the coming century.

About the Speaker

Derek Mitchell currently serves as senior adviser to the President, and Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC.

Between 2018 and 2023, Ambassador Mitchell was president of the National Democratic Institute, a US-based non-profit, non-government organisation dedicated to supporting democratic development worldwide. From 2011-16, he served as US special envoy and then ambassador to Burma (Myanmar), the first in 22 years, during a historic period in Myanmar’s nascent democratic transition.

From 2009-11, Ambassador Mitchell oversaw the Obama 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 of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs during the Clinton Administration. From 2001-2009, Ambassador Mitchell was senior fellow for Asia in CSIS’s International Security Program, where he founded the Center’s Southeast Asia Program. He began his career in Washington, DC, as a foreign policy staffer for Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Ambassador Mitchell has authored numerous books, articles, policy reports, and opinion pieces on international affairs. He received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, and was a visiting scholar at Peking University in 2007.