Fall Conference 2025 - China
— Keynote Address —
Brad Farnsworth, Principle at Fox Hollow Advisory
Brad Farnsworth has more than three decades of experience as a campus leader, instructor, and association executive. A recognized authority on China, he has travelled there since the early 1980s, and he maintains strong connections with Chinese universities and the Chinese government.
Based in Washington DC, he is an expert on international higher education policy, including skilled immigration, research funding and regulation, and international student recruitment. During the previous presidential administration, he became a leading authority on student visa policy, interviewing frequently with the national media.
He has led or advised on dozens of strategic planning projects that cover all aspects of campus internationalization, including partner selection, international learning, and international student enrollment. He recently authored a publication that explains internationalization and strategic planning to university board members.
Brad has created and taught in executive development courses for university administrators, private sector executives, and public sector leaders. His university teaching included courses on international management, the global economy, and the business environment in China. Over his teaching career he has taught and advised hundreds of international students. He has personally created and managed every type of education abroad experience, including short-term courses, study tours, language immersion, internships, and semester exchanges.
— Panel One: Security —
Dr. Ji-Young Lee, Associate Professor of Foreign Policy & Global Security, American University
Trained as a political scientist, Dr. Ji-Young Lee has written on Asian historical international relations, regional security order and the U.S. alliance network in Asia, and South Korean foreign policy. She is the author of "China’s Hegemony: Four Hundred Years of East Asian Domination" (Columbia University Press, 2016). Her current book project, "The Great Power Next Door" (under contract with Columbia University Press), is a historically informed analysis of when and how China has chosen to militarily intervene in the Korean Peninsula. She previously taught at Oberlin College as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics and East Asian Studies. Outside academia, she served as the Korea Policy Chair and a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation and was a non-resident James Kelly Korean Studies Fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS.
Gail Helt, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of Security and Intelligence Studies, King University
Gail Helt served as a CIA analyst from 2003 – 2014, focused primarily on China and Taiwan. Currently she is an assistant professor of political science and the director of the security and intelligence studies program at King University in Bristol, TN. Beyond her focus on the intelligence world, she also studies democratic backsliding and authoritarianism.
James A. Siebens, Stimson Center Fellow
James A. Siebens is a Fellow with Stimson Center’s Strategic Foresight Hub, where he leads the Defense Strategy and Planning project. He is also affiliated with Stimson’s Russia program, and Cyber program. Siebens is the editor of China’s Use of Armed Coercion: To Win Without Fighting (Routledge 2024), a study on China’s use of military and paramilitary forces for purposes of coercion. He is also co-editor of Military Coercion and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Use of Force Short of War (Routledge 2020), a book on U.S. deterrence and coercive diplomacy since the end of the Cold War; and co-editor of Advancing Accountability on Cyberspace: Models, Mechanisms, and Multistakeholder Approaches (Stimson Center 2024), an edited volume on the potential application of governance models and accountability mechanisms to improve deterrence of malign behavior in cyberspace. His research focuses on grand strategy, deterrence and coercion, and gray zone conflict.
— Panel Two: Commerce —
Richard Langstaff, J.D., International Banking and Financial Services Manager
In 1981, Richard Langstaff graduated from Patterson and headed into the world of banking. Since 1997 he has built, invested in and managed, in partnership with international private equity investors, four successful financial services companies across Europe. The last one, based in Greece, was sold to PE investors in 2020. He has also focused on education. In addition to his Patterson School MA and Rice BA, he has a JD degree and an MA degree (in Ottoman History) from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He also had the privilege of spending a term researching as a Distinguished Visitor at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Richard recently spoke as a panelist at the Patterson School's Fall Conference event on October 28, 2022.
Dr. Zongyuan “Zoe” Liu, Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies
Zongyuan Zoe Liu is Maurice R. Greenberg senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Her work focuses on international political economy, global financial markets, sovereign wealth funds, supply chains of critical minerals, development finance, emerging markets, energy and climate change policy, and East Asia-Middle East relations. Dr. Liu’s regional expertise is in East Asia, specifically China and Japan, and the Middle East, specifically Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Dr. John Charalambakis, Managing Director, Black Summit Financial Group
Dr. Charalambakis holds a Ph.D. in Economics and an MBA with an emphasis on macro-trends and financial markets. He has been a Professor of Economics and Finance, as well as an advisor on asset allocation, for over twenty years. He has worked as a consultant for government agencies, corporations, and non-profit groups in several countries, including providing support to the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. He is the author of The Canon of the Markets: Reflections from the Attic of History, Philosophy, Literature, and Statecraft (2022) and The Anchor of the Markets: More Reflections from the Attics of History, Philosophy, Literature, and Statecraft (2024), as well as numerous articles related to economics, finance, and investments. Dr. Charalambakis is also the Managing Director of the Black Summit Financial Group.
— Panel Three: Diplomacy —
Dr. Shiping Hua, Professor of Political Science, University of Louisville
Shiping Hua is Professor of Political Science, Calvin & Helen Distinguished Chair in Asian Studies, and Director of Asian Studies Program. He is specialized in Chinese political and legal culture.
Dr. Quan Li, Professor of Political Science, Texas A&M University, and Niehaus Center Visiting Fellow, Princeton University
Quan Li is Professor of Political Science, a Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, and Sara H. Lindsey Chair in the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. He has published research on a wide range of topics including economic globalization (international trade, foreign direct investment, financial openness, and capital account liberalization), democratic governance, political violence (interstate military conflict, civil conflict, and transnational terrorism), environmental degradation, and research methodology.
Jittip Mongkolnchaiarunya, Ph.D. Candidate, George Washington University
Jittip Mongkolnchaiarunya is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at GWU. Her dissertation investigates the politics of global environmental governance. She has side projects on the curse of centrality, the symbolic interactionist micro-foundations in strategic ambiguity, and the problem of interpretive ambiguity for rhetorical entrapment.
Dr. Amoz Hor, Assistant Professor of Politics, Centre College
Amoz Hor works on race, emotions, and international politics – jointly and separately. He is currently working on a book manuscript on how race and liberalism are intertwined in the post-war international order.
—Panel Four: Development —
Samantha Custer, Catherine M. Kelleher Fellow in Cooperative Security, University of Maryland - College Park
Over the last decade, Samantha Custer has designed, implemented, and overseen more than 60 policy-relevant research projects and mobilized over $20 million in externally sponsored funding. For over 20 years, she has led teams and supported evidence-based decision-making using novel methods, data, and tools. her research focuses on the intersection of development, diplomacy, and security. She examines the influence of economic statecraft and public diplomacy efforts in the Global South with a focus on China, Russia, and the US, generating evidence on the risks and rewards of open data for better governance., as well as surveying public, private, and civil society leaders across 147 countries to understand the impact of external money and ideas on domestic policy reforms.
Dr. Pierre Nguimkeu, Senior Fellow and Director of Africa Growth Initiative, Brookings
Pierre Nguimkeu is a senior fellow and director of the Africa Growth Initiative in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. He is currently on leave as a professor of economics at Georgia State University. His primary research interests endeavor to provide models and methods that promote evidence-based policies and long-term strategies for economic growth in Africa. His work on Africa’s development has made significant contributions to the understanding of the informal economy in Africa, as well as the roles of education, access to credit, kinship networks, and digital technologies in promoting employment, entrepreneurship, productivity, and growth in the informal and formal sectors.
Dr. Michael W. Nicholson, Economist and AfriqueU CEO
Michael W Nicholson is an economist, commissioned diplomat, and entrepreneur dedicated to building institutions that connect ideas and marketable opportunities worldwide. He has worked across academia, consulting, and government service, including more than 15 years as a commissioned diplomat with the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he led a $500 million portfolio advancing macroeconomic reform, trade, and private sector development. His research publications span trade, antitrust/competition policy, international tax reform, and privatization of WASH services, as well as collaborations with investment firms in frontier markets. Dr. Nicholson is also the Founder and CEO of AfriqueU.net, which connects African basketball talent with education, markets, and visibility in the United States and beyond. He is the author of the book "Shattered Chasm: The Lighter Side of Living in Liberia" and has lived in Armenia, Liberia, Pakistan, Kenya, Ghana, and Mozambique while representing USAID.