We're kicking off the year with two great minds discussing the State of the World as Asia's global importance continues to grow, Europe seems somewhat lost, and the U.S. is preparing for the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

Listen to Asia Society President & CEO Kyung-wha Kang and economic historian Adam Tooze, professor at Columbia University in New York. Their conversation was recorded at STATE OF ASIA, the flagship conference hosted by Asia Society Switzerland last November, in Zurich.

More information on the conference, the speakers, plus videos and summaries, are available on our website.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 8, episode 1 - Published: January 7, 2025
Host/Editor: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

The Gen A Young Leadership Program is a key initiative of Asia Society Switzerland. It brings together a group of around 25 vetted young professionals and advance students to participate in a year of deepening their Asia knowledge and to provide them with the tools to interpret developments in Asia and identify opportunities for successful collaboration. Gen A enables the next generation of leaders to engage with Asia at eye level and builds a community of young Asia-curious people in Switzerland.

Recently, our 2024 cohort graduated from the Gen A program, joining a community that has now grown to well over a hundred alumni. At the graduation ceremony for the Gen A 2024 fellows, Bettina Schaller, Head of Group Public Affairs of The Adecco Group and President of the World Employment Confederation, spoke with the graduates about skills young professionals at the start of their careers need in a changing world.

A world, Bettina says, that with 2024 has gone through a huge number of disruptions on many different levels and with countries the world over now being led by new governments who will shape what the world will look like in the immediate future. What does this mean for the grads and the demand for their skills? Where does Asia and Asia Competence fit into this? And what’s the one thing still no one has found the full answer to?

We are now accepting applications for the 2025 iteration of Gen A. All information is on our website. Apply before January 12, 2025.

Asia Society Switzerland is deeply grateful for the generous support of the Gen A – Young Leadership Program by the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, the Hirschmann Stiftung, Nicolas Oltramare and IMP AG.

STATE OF ASIA brings you engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 7, Bonus Episode 3 - Published: December 16, 2024
Host, Editor/producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

Deepti Kapoor's Age of Vice, published in 2023, is a story of power, corruption, and complicity, set in modern India. In the early 2000s, the lives of Ajay, Neda, and Sunny – the novel's three main characters – cross in New Delhi. There is idealism, optimism even; but also crime, drugs, and violence, as Sunny Wadia follows in the footsteps of his powerful father. Age of Vice, which became a New York Times bestseller and will be adapted into a tv series, is not a didactic novel, but a deeply researched portrait of a changing country, with a fast-growing economy, and ever greater inequality.

Deepti visited Zurich in October 2024 to talk about the book at Asia Society Switzerland's Big Picture event. The conversation was moderated by James Crabtree, 2024 TOY Senior Fellow at Asia Society Switzerland and himself author of The Billionaire Raj, a well-received book on crony capitalism and the rise of India's billionaire class. Listen to their conversation in this episode of the STATE OF ASIA podcast, or watch them at the event in this video.

STATE OF ASIA brings you engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

—
STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 7, Bonus Episode 2 - Published: December 9, 2024
Host, Editor/producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

On November 6, 2024, leading global thinker Adam Tooze delivered Asia Society Switzerland's third annual State of Asia Address in front of a full house in the prestigious aula of the University of Zurich, our partner for this event.

Adam holds the Shelby Cullom Davis chair of History at Columbia University in New York City. In 2019, Foreign Policy Magazine named him one of the top Global Thinkers of the decade.

Chartbook, his newsletter on economics, geopolitics and history, has over 120,000 subscribers. He is a columnist for Foreign Policy, where he also hosts a weekly economics podcast, Ones & Tooze.

The full text of Adam's 2024 State of Asia Address 'Asia in the Age of Polycrisis' is available on our website. A video of the address is here.

STATE OF ASIA brings you engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

-
STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 7, episode 6 - Published: November 12, 2024
Host/Editor: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

China and India seem to be en route to a better, or less bad, relationship for the first time in years. Germany published its first 'Focus on India' policy paper, immediately followed by a visit of Chancellor Scholz to New Delhi.
The new EU Commission has specifically named India as an important part of its strategies.
Russia, just like India a founding member of BRICS and host of that forum's 2024 summit, has its own pressing reasons to maintain the historical ties with India.
And then there's the Quad, in which India cooperates ever closer with fellow democracies the United States, Australia, and Japan.

What is India making of this momentum? Will it stick to its policy of non-alignment, or is, despite all the approaches from all sides, nonetheless a tilt to the West visible?

On this episode, we discuss all this with Garima Mohan, Senior Fellow in the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, where she leads the work on India and heads the India Trilateral Forum. Her research focuses on Europe-India ties, EU foreign policy in Asia, and security in the Indo-Pacific.

Garima is one of the speakers at our flagship STATE OF ASIA conference on November 7 in Zurich. Have a look at the full line-up and find information on how to get tickets on our website.

The evening before, on November 6, renowned historian and global thinker Adam Tooze delivers our State of Asia Address in Zurich. This is a public event, though registration to attend is crucial. More info here.

STATE OF ASIA brings you engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

—
STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 7, episode 5 - Published: October 29, 2024
Host: Serena Jung, Program and Communications Director, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor/producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

’The Weirdo’ is a podcast for people who live up to its name. It’s a very popular weekly Chinese-language show, where younger generation Chinese living both inside China and elsewhere come together to talk about topics ranging from international relations to personal relationships, from current events to the big issues of our time.
It’s, as the hosts say it, about ‘human survival in a complex and ever-changing world’.

On this episode, we speak with Qing Wang, one of the hosts of ’The Weirdo’, about not fitting in, the courage to say no, how Europe’s image has changed among people in China – and not for the better.

Qing Wang is one of the speakers at our flagship STATE OF ASIA conference on November 7 in Zurich. Have a look at the full line-up and find information on how to get tickets on our website.

STATE OF ASIA brings you engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

—
STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 7, episode 4 - Published: October 15, 2024
Host, editor/producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

On October 20, 2024, Indonesia will inaugurate Prabowo Subianto as its new President. Ever since his election win back in February, world leaders have been courting Prabowo, meeting with him even before he has taken office. Prabowo seems to love presidenting around the world much more than current President Joko Widodo did during his ten years in office.

If all goes well, says Dewi Fortuna Anwar, our guest on this episode, Indonesia under Prabowo could claim a much more active role on the world stage to deal with global issues like climate change and energy security. But Prabowo is also known to be temperamental and at times unpredictable, finding particular joy in sneering at Europe.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar is one of the speakers at our flagship STATE OF ASIA conference on November 7 in Zurich. Have a look at the full line-up and find information on how to get tickets on our website.

STATE OF ASIA brings you engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

-
STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 7, episode 3 - Published: October 1, 2024
Host, editor/producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

Over the past year, U.S.-China relations have seen slight improvement, in part driven by the U.S. desire for stability leading up to the Presidential election. Regardless of whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the election, the new President will have to make a crucial decision: maintain this fragile period of stability, or press forward with more competitive measures to push back against China's rise. The decision will hinge on a policy debate that balances the need to deter Chinese aggression with the importance of reassuring China about U.S. long-term intentions, particularly regarding sensitive issues like Taiwan.

Should the new U.S. administration double down on tougher deterrence, including military hard power and denying China access to advanced technology? Or should it instead seek reassurance, aiming to collaborate with China on global issues such as climate change?

Listen to an Oxford Debate co-organized by Asia Society Policy Institute and Asia Society Switzerland and held on September 17, 2024, on the motion “The next U.S. administration must reassure China, not just deter it”.

Presenting clear-cut, time-constrained, well-thought-out arguments are:

• Yun Sun, Director of the China Program at the Stimson Center
• Rorry Daniels, Managing Director, Asia Society Policy Institute
• James Crabtree, TOY Senior Fellow at Asia Society Switzerland and at the Asia Society Policy Institute
• Jason Hsu, former Taiwanese Legislator and Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School

Learn more about the speakers on the event's website and watch the video of the entire debate here.

Our Oxford Debate series offers insights into complex issues, presented in short and clear arguments. Find all the debates here.

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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.
Season 7, Bonus Episode 1 - Published: September 18, 2024
Host, editor/producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland