Campus & Community

KSG sets up leadership program with Taiwan

2 min read

Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. of the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) and Taiwanese foreign minister Hung-mao Tien signed an agreement last month establishing the KSG-Taiwan Leadership Program. The new program offers a unique opportunity for collaboration between the Kennedy School and Taiwan’s current and emerging leaders.

As part of the Asia Programs at the KSG’s Center for Business and Government, the program will include practical training for a select group of 13 government leaders and top scholars from Taiwan. The group will participate in various residential executive education programs at Harvard, as well as applied research on economic and social developments in the region. In addition, the program will support institutional exchange between Harvard’s world-renowned faculty and Taiwan’s political and academic leadership through the arrangement of lectures in both countries and an annual conference.

The Kennedy School’s Asia Programs are committed to promoting research and discussion on public policy issues pertaining to both sides of the Taiwan Straits. Beginning in 2002, the new program will join a host of other initiatives that span activities in mainland China, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and the Asia-Pacific region as an integrated whole. Possible research topics that may be pursued through the KSG-Taiwan Leadership Program include economic relations between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China; welfare systems in East Asia; competitiveness in the Taiwanese economy; and governance in the 21st century.

“The new program offers a unique opportunity to enhance relationships in the region, build cultural understanding and mutual respect among various entities in the East Asia region, and advance excellence in public policy and global leadership in Taiwan and the United States,” said Anthony Saich, faculty chair of Asia Programs at the Center for Business and Government.