STATE OF ASIA, the podcast from Asia Society Switzerland, is back with engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.The new season premieres Tuesday, September 3. New episodes follow every other Tuesday.Plus: look out for bonus episodes bringing you insights from some of the many events organized by Asia Society Switzerland.Stay up-to-date on all our activities: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.-----STATE OF ASIA is a podcast series from Asia Society Switzerland.  Season 7 trailer - Published: August 27, 2024Editor/Producer:Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

Batteries increasingly power everything around us, all thanks to major innovations and a supply chain that spans the world. And that’s where things get complicated.As battery costs sink and technology advances, nations increasingly view batteries as vital for national security, economic competitiveness, and to reach their climate goals.We spoke with two experts on all things batteries and geopolitics: Marina Yue Zhang, Associate Professor at the Australia-China Relations Institute of the University of Technology Sydney; and Duo Fu, Vice President of the Clean Tech Division at Rystad Energy, a Norwegian energy intelligence firm.The conversation is also available as a webcast here. More information on the speakers is on our website.STATE OF ASIA is back with new episodes in September.Stay up-to-date on all our activities: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.-STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.  Season 6,  Bonus episode 4 - Published: July 11, 2024Host and Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

As India’s economy continues to grow, can the world’s most populous country truly replicate China's success of the past decades? Should India even imitate China? Maybe not, says our guest on this episode, Alicia García Herrero, Hong Kong-based Chief Economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis, and Senior Fellow at European think tank Breugel. Alicia discusses the key differences between the two countries, talks about if the world is even looking for a new China, and provides insights on what economic policies could drive India’s continued growth, especially as the country enters a second decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.STATE OF ASIA brings you engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.This is the final episode of this season. Expect bonus episodes over the summer. We’re back with new episodes early September.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 6, episode 6 - Published: June 11, 2024Host: Nico Luchsinger, Executive Director, Asia Society SwitzerlandEditor/producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

As tensions simmer in its immediate environment, Japan is on high alert. In the midst of China's "sustained aggressiveness," Japan is revising its defense and security policies.But how does this align with its pacifist constitution, and is there still room for engagement with China? Hear from Yuki Tatsumi, Senior Fellow, Co-Director of the East Asia Program, and Director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC.Yuki sheds light on Japan's historical approach to China, the current state of their bilateral relations, and the delicate balance between deterrence and engagement.We also discuss the implications of Japan's changing security policies on its relationship with other regional players, including South Korea and India and we explore the sentiment of the Japanese public towards these shifts.Want more insights on Japan’s foreign policy? Watch Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator at the Financial Times in conversation with Jesper Koll at Asia Society Japan 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 6, episode 5 - Published: May 28, 2024Host/Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

China’s leader Xi Jinping raised his country’s relationship with EU and NATO member Hungary to a level that puts Hungary almost as close to Beijing’s chest as Russia and North Korea are.Western Europe long regarded  the ’new’ EU member states in the East as Trojan horses. But views on, and relations with, China have grown very diverse in Central and Eastern Europe. Especially in the Baltics, the Czech Republic and, increasingly, Poland, China is looked at with suspicion, given its support of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Beijing's failed attempt over the past decade to reel them in through the now defunct 17+1 grouping.A week after Xi’s visit to Hungary, Serbia, and France, and ahead of June’s European Parliament elections, we speak with Alicja Bachulska, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations on how the experiences Central and Eastern European countries have dealing with China can contribute to a stronger European China policy.Alicja co-authored The Missing Pieces? How CEE Can Contribute To A Stronger European Approach To China, a research paper published in April 2024. The full report is available on the website of CHOICE, China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe.Also in April, the Asia Society Policy Institute published a report on the experience Lithuania had dealing with economic coercion coming from China. That’s available 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 6, episode 4 - Published: May 14, 2024Host/Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

Indira Ranamagar is Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nepal since January 2023. She started her career as a primary science and maths teacher in village schools in the southeast of Nepal, and became a social worker in prisons in 1990. For well over 30 years now, she has been a prolific human rights and social worker. In 2000, she founded the NGO Prisoner’s Assistance Nepal, which looks after prisoners' welfare and works to give children whose parents are imprisoned an education and a roof over their heads.In 2022, she was elected to Nepal’s House of Representatives on behalf of a brand-new political party, taking her social work from the streets to parliament.In 2007, Indira was named an Asia 21 Young Leader by the global network of Asia Society, while in 2009 her NGO PA Nepal received the Asia Society Asia 21 Public Service Award. In 2017, she was the first Nepali to feature on the BBC’s list of the 100 most influential women in the world.For more on Nepal, watch this episode of our popular series A Closer Look: a quick but deep dive into the Himalayan nation with Nepalese investor Suman Joshi, recorded in March, 2023.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 6, episode 3 - Published: April 29, 2024Host/Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

Nalin Mehta is a political scientist and journalist in Delhi, India, and author of The New BJP, a work you can only call THE  book on the BJP, the largest political party in the world.Under the leadership of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has solidified its position as the uncontested center of power in the world's most populous country.As India heads to the polls over a 6-week period beginning April 19, we talk with Nalin about how the BJP built and expanded its power base, and what Modi, who is all but certain to once again win the elections, could set as priorities upon starting his second decade as Prime Minister.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 6, episode 2 - Published: April 16, 2024Host: Nico Luchsinger, Executive Director, Asia Society SwitzerlandEditor/Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

There is little to dispute about Asia's rise as a key feature of our time. Already the world's most populous region, Asian countries have steadily gained in economic and political influence on the world stage in recent decades. While in the past this development has been driven heavily by China, the next few years will see countries like India, Indonesia, and Vietnam expand their international clout.As the balance of power shifts east, will the world order inevitably change? Asia is far from a monolithic actor, and for all the talk about an "Asian Century", there is arguably no coherent vision from Asia on how the global community should operate. And many countries, especially China, have benefitted from the current system, and might seek to adjust rather than replace it.In this bonus episode of STATE OF ASIA, listen to four experts taking sides over the motion "Asia’s Rise Will Lead to a New World Order", as they did in an Oxford Debate in front of a live audience in Zurich on April 8, 2024.Presenting clear-cut, time-constrained, well-thought-out arguments are:John Delury, a historian and a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul.Abigaël Vasselier, director for Policy and European Affairs and head of the Foreign Relations team at MERICS in Berlin.Julia Ganter, Programme Director International Affairs at the German foundation Körber-Stiftung and head of the Körber Emerging Middle Powers Initiative, based in Berlin.John Lee, director of consultancy East West Futures and a researcher at the Leiden Asia Centre.Watch the entire debate on the Asia Society YouTube channel, and learn more about the speakers on our website.Our Oxford Debate series offers insights into complex issues, presented in short and clear arguments. Find all editions here.Stay up-to-date on all our activities: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.-STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland.  Season 6, bonus episode 3 - Published: April 9,  2024Host and Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

Johan Nylander is an award-winning author and freelance China and Asia correspondent. His work is published by CNN, Forbes, Sweden’s leading business daily Dagens Industri, and many other international media outlets.His most recent book is The Wolf Economy Awakens – Mongolia’s Fight for Democracy, and a Green and Digital Future (Hong Kong University Press, 2023). It's full of original reporting and great conversations with Mongolians, from angry elderly people in the street and the lead singer of internationally successful Mongolian band The HU to the country's Prime Minister.In this episode, we talk about how Mongolia is gearing up to be Asia's next economic miracle. And it's not just because of mining: the country has a vibrant tech start-up scene and is making strides in the energy transition.All the while, this vibrant democracy of 3.3 million people, wedged between authoritarian giants China and Russia, manages to stay friendly with almost any country it interacts with.Check out the music from The HU here, and watch here how Mongolia's largest restaurant, at the Oyu Tolgoy mine in the Gobi desert, feeds over 6,000 miners every day. More on the upcoming Oxford Debate LIVE on the motion 'Asia's rise will lead to a new world order', taking place on April 8, 2024, in Zurich, is 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 6, episode 1 - Published: March 26, 2024Host/Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

STATE OF ASIA, the podcast from Asia Society Switzerland, is back with engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all.The new season premieres Tuesday, March 26, with a conversation with Hong Kong-based journalist and author Johan Nylander, whose latest book is a deep dive on one of Asia's largest but, for now, most unknown nations: Mongolia. New episodes follow every other Tuesday.Plus: look out for special episodes bringing you insights from some of the many events organized by Asia Society Switzerland.Stay up-to-date on all our activities: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.-----STATE OF ASIA is a podcast series from Asia Society Switzerland.  Season 6 trailer - Published: March 19, 2024Editor/Producer:Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland