Abstract

On November 29, 2014, Taiwan's electorate will go to the polls to select thousands of ward chiefs, hundreds of council members, and dozens of mayors and county executives. This special roundtable will bring together experts who will analyze the results of the election and discuss the ramifications for Taiwan's future, including cross-Strait relations. The speakers will give a broad overview of the elections, put the results in historical perspective, and discuss relevant public opinion data. 

Speaker Bios

Thomas Fingar is the inaugural Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He was the Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford during January to December 2009. From May 2005 through December 2008, he served as the first deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and, concurrently, as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. He served previously as assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2004–2005), principal deputy assistant secretary (2001–2003), deputy assistant secretary for analysis (1994–2000), director of the Office of Analysis for East Asia and the Pacific (1989–1994), and chief of the China Division (1986–1989). Between 1975 and 1986 he held a number of positions at Stanford University, including senior research associate in the Center for International Security and Arms Control. Professor Fingar's most recent book is Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis and National Security (Stanford University Press, 2011).

Kharis Templeman is the Program Manager for CDDRL's Taiwan Democracy Program. He received his B.A. (2002) from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. in political science (2012) from the University of Michigan. As a graduate student, he worked in Taipei at the Election Study Center, National Cheng Chi University, and later was a dissertation research fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.  His dissertation examined the development of Taiwan’s competitive party system from a comparative perspective, including a large study of the origins and decline of dominant party systems around the world over the last 60 years. Current research interests include democratization, party system development in newly-contested regimes, and political institutions, with a regional focus on the new and transitioning democracies of Pacific Asia.  

Dennis Lu-Chung Weng is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Wesleyan University. He received his doctorate in Political Science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2014. Prior to joining Wesleyan University, he was a business consultant, journalist and new anchor, as well as an instructor in Political Science at UT-Dallas. Dr. Weng's research interests include comparative politics, international relations, and political methodology. Specifically, his research focuses on political behavior, international political economy, international security And Asian politics. His dissertation explored a set of thematically related research questions on political participation and democratic citizenship in Asia, East Asia in particular. Dr Weng has presented papers at national and international academic meetings and conferences, and his research has been published in a number of Asian news media outlets.

Winnie Lin is a junior at Stanford University. She is majoring in mathematics and pursues a minor in Art Practice. She works as a research assistant for the Taiwan Democracy Project, and will be voting in the 2014 Taipei municipal elections.

Lunch will be served.