On April 22-23, KEI hosted three separate events on the University of Wyoming campus. Hosted by the UW International Studies Program, and in particular, director Jean Garrison, the three events were:

~KEI's Six Party Talks Simulation,

~A lunch-time career panel, and

~A feature panel program entitled: "Fallout Northeast Asia: U.S. Foreign Policy in Crisis Mode?" examining how America's relationships in Northeast Asia, specifically with Japan, China, and the two Koreas will weather Kim Jong-il's nuclear ambitions and the global financial crisis.

Roughly 40 students participated in the Six Party Talks simulation, and over 140 students attended and participated in the feature event that addressed the question, "What can president Obama and his foreign policy team do to prevent these crises from spilling out to destabilize the region and challenge U.S. interests in East Asia?"

To see photos of this event, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

Jean A. Garrison, is associate professor of political science at the University of Wyoming. She is the author of Making China Policy: From Nixon to G.W. Bush (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005), Games Advisors Play: Foreign Policy in the Nixon and Carter Administrations (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999), and various articles and chapters (including publications in the International Studies Review, Political Psychology, Cooperation and Conflict, Asian Affairs, and Asian Perspective. In 2003, she was the recipient of a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship and spent part of 2004 in the State Department"s Bureau of East Asian Pacific Affairs working in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. Her most recent work is a manuscript China"s Quest for Energy Security in Asia currently under contract. At UW, Dr. Garrison directs the Political Science Master's of Arts Program and teaches courses in American Foreign Relations, Comparative Foreign Policy, and seminars in topics such as the Psychology of War and Peace and International Relations. Prior to UW she taught at Boston University. Her Ph.D. is in Political Science from the University of South Carolina.

L. Gordon Flake joined the Mansfield Foundation in February 1999. He was previously a Senior Fellow and Associate Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at The Atlantic Council of the United States and prior to that Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America.

Mr. Flake is co-editor with Park Roh-byug of the book "New Political Realities in Seoul: Working toward a Common Approach to Strengthen U.S.-Korean Relations" (Mansfield Foundation, March 2008) and co-editor with Scott Snyder of the book "Paved with Good Intentions: the NGO Experience in North Korea" (Praeger, 2003) and has published extensively on policy issues in Asia. He is a regular contributor on Korea issues in the U.S. and Asian press and has traveled to North Korea numerous times. He is a member of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies and serves on the Board of the United States Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (USCSCAP) as well as on the Board of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, and the Advisory Council of the Korea Economic Institute of America.

Mr. Flake was born in Rehoboth, New Mexico. He received his BA degree in Korean with a minor in international relations from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He completed his MA at the David M. Kennedy Center for International and Area Studies, also at B.Y.U. He speaks both fluent Korean and Laotian. He has seven young children and is married to Pakayvanh Sisoutham of Vientiane, Laos.

Nicholas Szechenyi is deputy director of the Japan Chair at CSIS, where he is also a fellow. His research focuses on the policy debate in Japan and U.S.-Japan relations. Prior to joining CSIS in 2005, he was a news producer for Fuji Television in Washington, D.C., where he covered U.S. policy in Asia and domestic politics.

Szechenyi coauthors a quarterly review of U.S.-Japan relations in Comparative Connections, an electronic journal on East Asian bilateral relations. Other publications include "A Turning Point for Japan"s Self Defense Forces," Washington Quarterly (Autumn 2006), and "Common Values: A New Agenda for U.S.-Japan Relations (with Michael Green), Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (Summer/Fall 2006). Szechenyi received an M.A. in international economics and Japan studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. in Asian studies from Connecticut College. He lived in Japan for six years and speaks fluent Japanese.

Nicole Finnemann is the Director of Research & Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute where she is charged with matters related to North Korea and Academic outreach. Around the country, she organizes and participates in KEI's numerous annual university programs and academic symposia. In Washington, Ms. Finnemann is responsible for programming and publications related to North Korea, student-related events, and KEI's Academic Paper Series (as editor and manager). Her primary substantive areas of research are negotiation and North Korea; and she returned from her first trip to Pyongyang in April, 2008.

Outside of KEI, Ms. Finnemann has participated in referendum and peace agreement drafting for the Public International Law and Policy Group, co-founded the American University Negotiation Project, as well as LINC Negotiation Architects, a consultancy providing negotiation and mediation training materials. She has over five years of primary and secondary-level teaching and curriculum design experience. Having lived in Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Italy, and South Korea, Ms. Finnemann speaks Spanish fluently as well as some Italian and Korean. She holds a B.A. from Kalamazoo College and an M.A. in International Conflict Resolution from the American University's School of International Service.

Quee-Young Kim