Error message
The East-West Center in Washington and National Committee on North Korea invite you to an
Indo-Pacific Foreign Policy and Defense Series Webinar:
North Korea and the Middle East:
Lessons Learned for US - North Korea Relations
Featuring:
Dr. Satu P. Limaye (Opening Remarks)
Vice President, East- West Center &
Director, East-West Center in Washington
Ms. Suzanne DiMaggio
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Mr. Yaakov Katz
Editor-in-Chief, The Jerusalem Post
Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker
Senior Fellow, Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Emeritus
Mr. Keith Luse (Moderator)
Executive Director, National Committee on North Korea
East-West Center in Washington · North Korea and the Middle East: Lessons Learned for US - North Korea Relations
Despite North Korea's reputation as a recluse nation, it has deep historical and significant military relations with several countries in the Middle East. The region has been a key destination for a range of North Korean technology and expertise, including missile, chemical, and nuclear technology. What are contemporary areas of intersection between North Korea and Syria? Why have the North Koreans taken so much interest in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and what lessons are they drawing from it? What is the background on Israel's past efforts to persuade North Korea to not supply nuclear technology to Syria? What lessons have been learned from observing the North Korea - Middle East nexus which could factor into efforts by the international community to persuade North Korea to restart diplomacy on its nuclear weapons program?
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Suzanne DiMaggio is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focuses on US foreign policy toward the Middle East and Asia. She is one of the foremost experts and practitioners of diplomatic dialogues with countries that have limited or no official relations with the United States, especially Iran and North Korea. For nearly two decades, she has led these track 1.5 and track 2 conversations to help policymakers identify pathways for diplomatic progress on a range of issues, including regional security, nonproliferation, terrorism, and governance. DiMaggio directs the U.S.-Iran Initiative, which is carried out through a combination of policy dialogue, research, and a series of private roundtables and public events, with the aim of exploring possible grounds for constructive engagement and generating diplomatic solutions to the issues that divide the two countries. The project’s centerpiece is a long-running dialogue that she established in 2002, which helped to provide the foundations for the secret talks between Iran and the Obama administration that led to the 2015 nuclear agreement. She also directs a US-DPRK dialogue that has included several visits to North Korea. As part of that process, she facilitated the first official discussions between the Trump administration and North Korean government representatives in Oslo in May 2017. Ms. DiMaggio is a co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, where she served as the inaugural Board Chair. She also is an Associate Senior Fellow in the Disarmament, Arms Control and Nonproliferation Program at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an Advisor to the Vienna-based Open Nuclear Network, and a member of Foreign Policy for America’s Advisory Board. She holds a B.A. from New York University and an M.A. from City College of New York (CUNY).
Siegfried S. Hecker is a professor emeritus (research) in the Department of Management Science and Engineering and a senior fellow emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He was co-director of CISAC from 2007-2012. From 1986 to 1997, Dr. Hecker served as the fifth Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Hecker is an internationally recognized expert in plutonium science, global threat reduction, and nuclear security. Dr. Hecker’s current research interests include nuclear nonproliferation and arms control, nuclear weapons policy, nuclear security, the safe and secure expansion of nuclear energy, and plutonium science. At the end of the Cold War, he has fostered cooperation with the Russian nuclear laboratories to secure and safeguard the vast stockpile of ex-Soviet fissile materials. In June 2016, the Los Alamos Historical Society published two volumes edited by Dr. Hecker. The works, titled Doomed to Cooperate, document the history of Russian-U.S. laboratory-to-laboratory cooperation since 1992. Dr. Hecker’s research projects at CISAC focus on cooperation with young and senior nuclear professionals in Russia and China to reduce the risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism worldwide, to avoid a return to a nuclear arms race, and to promote the safe and secure global expansion of nuclear power. He also continues to assess the technical and political challenges of nuclear North Korea and the nuclear aspirations of Iran. Dr. Hecker joined Los Alamos National Laboratory as graduate research assistant and postdoctoral fellow before returning as technical staff member following a tenure at General Motors Research. He led the laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division and Center for Materials Science before serving as laboratory director from 1986 through 1997, and senior fellow until July 2005.
Yaakov Katz is The Jerusalem Post's editor-in-chief. He previously served for close to a decade as the paper's military reporter and defense analyst. He is the author of "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" and co-author of two books: "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" (with Amir Bohbot) and "Israel vs. Iran - The Shadow War" (with Yoaz Hendel). In 2012-2013 he was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and was a faculty member at Harvard's Extension School where he taught an advanced course in journalism.
Satu P. Limaye is Vice President of the East-West Center and the Director of the East-West Center in Washington where he created and now directs the Asia Matters for America initiative and is the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. He is also a Senior Advisor at CNA Corp (Center for Naval Analyses). He is a graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar. He publishes and speaks widely on Indo-Pacific regional issues and supports various U.S. government, foundation, fellowship, and professional organizations. Among his current affiliations are Center for New American Security (CNAS) Task Force on the U.S.-Philippines Alliance, United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Senior Study Group on the North Pacific, Project 2049 Study Group on the U.S.-Australia Alliance, Korea Economic Institute (KEI) Advisory Council, and Global Taiwan Institute-Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation project. Recent publications include: Southeast Asia’s choices: Economic, political, and geopolitical integration face complications, India in East Asia: Focused on the Quad and Border Disputes with China, and Maintaining the Technology Edge: Strengthening US and Indo-Pacific Alliances to Counter Chinese Technology Acquisition (with Rose Tenyotkin).
Keith Luse is the Executive Director of the National Committee on North Korea. Previously, Luse was the Senior East Asia Policy Advisor for Chairman and later Ranking Member Senator Richard G. Lugar at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2003 until 2013. Luse also served as Staff Director for Mr. Lugar at the Senate Agriculture Committee from 1999 through 2002, where the Senator also served as Chairman and later Ranking Member. While at the Senate Agriculture Committee, Luse made the first of eventually five trips to North Korea. Luse’s Bachelor of Arts degree in political science is from Indiana University. His graduate certificate in public management and additional graduate studies were obtained at Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis.
The East-West Center in Washington and National Committee on North Korea invite you to an
Indo-Pacific Foreign Policy and Defense Series Webinar:
North Korea and the Middle East:
Lessons Learned for US - North Korea Relations
Featuring:
Dr. Satu P. Limaye (Opening Remarks)
Vice President, East- West Center &
Director, East-West Center in Washington
Ms. Suzanne DiMaggio
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Mr. Yaakov Katz
Editor-in-Chief, The Jerusalem Post
Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker
Senior Fellow, Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Emeritus
Mr. Keith Luse (Moderator)
Executive Director, National Committee on North Korea
East-West Center in Washington · North Korea and the Middle East: Lessons Learned for US - North Korea Relations
Despite North Korea's reputation as a recluse nation, it has deep historical and significant military relations with several countries in the Middle East. The region has been a key destination for a range of North Korean technology and expertise, including missile, chemical, and nuclear technology. What are contemporary areas of intersection between North Korea and Syria? Why have the North Koreans taken so much interest in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and what lessons are they drawing from it? What is the background on Israel's past efforts to persuade North Korea to not supply nuclear technology to Syria? What lessons have been learned from observing the North Korea - Middle East nexus which could factor into efforts by the international community to persuade North Korea to restart diplomacy on its nuclear weapons program?
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Suzanne DiMaggio is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focuses on US foreign policy toward the Middle East and Asia. She is one of the foremost experts and practitioners of diplomatic dialogues with countries that have limited or no official relations with the United States, especially Iran and North Korea. For nearly two decades, she has led these track 1.5 and track 2 conversations to help policymakers identify pathways for diplomatic progress on a range of issues, including regional security, nonproliferation, terrorism, and governance. DiMaggio directs the U.S.-Iran Initiative, which is carried out through a combination of policy dialogue, research, and a series of private roundtables and public events, with the aim of exploring possible grounds for constructive engagement and generating diplomatic solutions to the issues that divide the two countries. The project’s centerpiece is a long-running dialogue that she established in 2002, which helped to provide the foundations for the secret talks between Iran and the Obama administration that led to the 2015 nuclear agreement. She also directs a US-DPRK dialogue that has included several visits to North Korea. As part of that process, she facilitated the first official discussions between the Trump administration and North Korean government representatives in Oslo in May 2017. Ms. DiMaggio is a co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, where she served as the inaugural Board Chair. She also is an Associate Senior Fellow in the Disarmament, Arms Control and Nonproliferation Program at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an Advisor to the Vienna-based Open Nuclear Network, and a member of Foreign Policy for America’s Advisory Board. She holds a B.A. from New York University and an M.A. from City College of New York (CUNY).
Siegfried S. Hecker is a professor emeritus (research) in the Department of Management Science and Engineering and a senior fellow emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He was co-director of CISAC from 2007-2012. From 1986 to 1997, Dr. Hecker served as the fifth Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Hecker is an internationally recognized expert in plutonium science, global threat reduction, and nuclear security. Dr. Hecker’s current research interests include nuclear nonproliferation and arms control, nuclear weapons policy, nuclear security, the safe and secure expansion of nuclear energy, and plutonium science. At the end of the Cold War, he has fostered cooperation with the Russian nuclear laboratories to secure and safeguard the vast stockpile of ex-Soviet fissile materials. In June 2016, the Los Alamos Historical Society published two volumes edited by Dr. Hecker. The works, titled Doomed to Cooperate, document the history of Russian-U.S. laboratory-to-laboratory cooperation since 1992. Dr. Hecker’s research projects at CISAC focus on cooperation with young and senior nuclear professionals in Russia and China to reduce the risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism worldwide, to avoid a return to a nuclear arms race, and to promote the safe and secure global expansion of nuclear power. He also continues to assess the technical and political challenges of nuclear North Korea and the nuclear aspirations of Iran. Dr. Hecker joined Los Alamos National Laboratory as graduate research assistant and postdoctoral fellow before returning as technical staff member following a tenure at General Motors Research. He led the laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division and Center for Materials Science before serving as laboratory director from 1986 through 1997, and senior fellow until July 2005.
Yaakov Katz is The Jerusalem Post's editor-in-chief. He previously served for close to a decade as the paper's military reporter and defense analyst. He is the author of "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" and co-author of two books: "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" (with Amir Bohbot) and "Israel vs. Iran - The Shadow War" (with Yoaz Hendel). In 2012-2013 he was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and was a faculty member at Harvard's Extension School where he taught an advanced course in journalism.
Satu P. Limaye is Vice President of the East-West Center and the Director of the East-West Center in Washington where he created and now directs the Asia Matters for America initiative and is the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. He is also a Senior Advisor at CNA Corp (Center for Naval Analyses). He is a graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar. He publishes and speaks widely on Indo-Pacific regional issues and supports various U.S. government, foundation, fellowship, and professional organizations. Among his current affiliations are Center for New American Security (CNAS) Task Force on the U.S.-Philippines Alliance, United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Senior Study Group on the North Pacific, Project 2049 Study Group on the U.S.-Australia Alliance, Korea Economic Institute (KEI) Advisory Council, and Global Taiwan Institute-Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation project. Recent publications include: Southeast Asia’s choices: Economic, political, and geopolitical integration face complications, India in East Asia: Focused on the Quad and Border Disputes with China, and Maintaining the Technology Edge: Strengthening US and Indo-Pacific Alliances to Counter Chinese Technology Acquisition (with Rose Tenyotkin).
Keith Luse is the Executive Director of the National Committee on North Korea. Previously, Luse was the Senior East Asia Policy Advisor for Chairman and later Ranking Member Senator Richard G. Lugar at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2003 until 2013. Luse also served as Staff Director for Mr. Lugar at the Senate Agriculture Committee from 1999 through 2002, where the Senator also served as Chairman and later Ranking Member. While at the Senate Agriculture Committee, Luse made the first of eventually five trips to North Korea. Luse’s Bachelor of Arts degree in political science is from Indiana University. His graduate certificate in public management and additional graduate studies were obtained at Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis.
