Indo-Pacific Affairs podcast

Dr. Ernest Gunasekara-Rockwell

Welcome to Indo-Pacific Affairs, a podcast devoted to tackling the wicked problems facing policy makers, academicians, military leaders, and others in the Indo-Pacific region. Affiliated with Air University’s Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, the Consortium of Indo-Pacific Researchers, and the Air Command and Staff College’s eSchool, the podcast features interviews with the top names in academia, government, and think tanks from around the region. 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: The views and opinions expressed or implied in this podcast are those of the participants and should not be construed as carrying the official sanction of the Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force, Air Education and Training Command, Air University, or other agencies or departments of the US government or their international equivalents. Music by Shamil Elvenheim - "Night in India," 2012. Used under open source license. read less
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Episodes

Episode 8 - Interview with Ambassador Dan Shields
11-03-2022
Episode 8 - Interview with Ambassador Dan Shields
Ambassador Dan Shields shares his insights on Brunei, Southeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific writ large. Interviewers Dr. Jared McKinney and Lt Col Sze Miller moderate.Ambassador Daniel Shields is a visiting policy practitioner at the Gerald R. Ford School's Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan and serves as a member of the editorial advisory board of the Department of the Air Forces Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, a publication of Air University Press. Ambassador Shields consults, teaches courses and conducts simulations relating to diplomacy and U.S.-Asia relations. From 2015-18, while on detail from the U.S. State Department as the Diplomatic Advisor to the Commandant at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he helped educate future strategic leaders on how to integrate the diplomatic, informational, military and economic (DIME) instruments of power to achieve national security objectives. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Brunei from 2011-14, handling sensitive South China Sea-related issues in connection with Brunei’s hosting in 2013 of the various Summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Ambassador (Ret.) Shields led two other U.S. diplomatic Missions in Southeast Asia as Chargé d’Affaires (at times when no Ambassador was in place.) In response to an urgent request from the State Department, he temporarily left the Army War College for six months in 2017 to serve as the Chargé at the U.S. Mission to ASEAN in Jakarta, traveling to Manila to support participation by the President and Cabinet Secretaries in the ASEAN-related Summits. His other Chargé duty was for 15 months, mainly in 2009, when he led Embassy Singapore in supporting then-President Obama’s participation in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings. His early to mid-career assignments were mainly in Japan and China, including as Political Minister Counselor at Embassy Beijing from 2004-07. He speaks Japanese and Chinese. His first tour in the Foreign Service was as a Vice Consul at Embassy Manila from 1985-87, where he witnessed firsthand and reported on the People Power demonstrations and the fall of the Marcos regime.