Discussants

Ambassador William Clark, Jr. is Managing Director of Hills & Company. Previously he was President of the Japan Society, Inc. He has held many senior positions in the Department of State, including Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Ambassador to India, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Deputy Chief Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo. He also held the Japan Chair at CSIS. Ambassador Clark received a B.A. and honorary Doctor of Letters degree from San Jose State University. He also did postgraduate work at the National War College. Ambassador Clark has received numerous awards, including the Order of the Sacred Treasure Gold and Silver Star, conferred by the Emperor of Japan (2000), and the Department of State Distinguished Honor Award (1989).

Dr. Philip Oldenburg is Adjunct Research Associate at the Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University. He has taught political science at Columbia University since 1977, as a member of the regular faculty and as director and associate director of the Southern Asian Institution. Dr. Oldenburg has spent a total of more than a decade in India since his first trip in 1964, doing research, consulting, and assisting delegations. He was also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations-Asia Society Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward South Asia. Dr. Oldenburg received a B.A. from Brandeis University, and an MA. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He has published India Briefing: Quickening the Pace of Change (editor, with Alyssa Ayres, 2002), and “Politics in India” in Students’ Britannica India (2000) and will soon publish India Briefing 2004 (editor, with Alyssa Ayres).

Dr. Erland Heginbotham is Professor of Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He also teaches at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center (Foreign Service Institute) in Virginia. Dr. Heginbotham is a retired diplomat from the U.S. Foreign Service; he served at several American embassies in Indonesia, Vietnam, Liberia and Korea. He is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the first Director-General of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service. He founded Gateway Japan, a print and on-line clearinghouse of information on Japan and Northeast Asia, co-sponsored by the National Policy Association and the University of Maryland. He has authored several books and numerous articles on East Asia. He is currently writing a book, Asian Economic Development and Dynamics.