Cordially invites you to a Zoom Open Forum on  
 
The U.S. 2020 Presidential Election:   
Outlook, Issues, and Significance for  
Domestic and Foreign Policy  
 
with  
Casimir A. Yost 
Senior Fellow at the Institute for Study of Diplomacy,
Georgetown University 
Former Senior Staff, Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
Jonah Blank 
Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation 
Former Policy Director for South and Southeast Asia,  
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Moderated by: 
 Ambassador David Merrill  
President, USINDO 
 
Thursday, October 1, 2020 
 
9:00 – 10:30 AM EDT   
20:00 – 21:30 WIB (Jakarta time) 
 
Location: Online Zoom Webinar 
(Zoom details will be provided following registration)
The November 3 U.S. presidential election is shaping up as more consequential than any in recent American history. The two candidates have sharply differing styles, temperaments, and domestic and foreign policies. They have profoundly different views on governance, including the role of the Presidency in relation to the legislature, courts, state governors, and press. They also represent a distinct difference about America’s role in the world and models of international engagement.  

These choices are playing out against a backdrop of an increasingly polarized electorate. The Coronavirus and how to deal with it has increased polarization, as have growing controversies arising from racial and ethnic tensions. Other pressing issues include health care, economic relief, foreign policy, immigration, public safety, and free expression. People’s motivations for voting range from affinity for their party’s candidate to preventing the victory of the other party’s candidate 

Attention is now on the campaign and the debates, with the first September 29. As of mid-September, the average of national polls shows Biden with 51%, and Trump at 43%. However, with America’s Electoral College system and its winner-take-all counting, the role of swing states is of vital consequence. With these variables, the challenges of polls, and “October surprises”, no one can confidently predict the outcome at this point.  

To bring the significance of the U.S. election to our Indonesian and American viewers, and to present the latest poll results and other factors bearing on its outcome, USINDO is pleased to invite you to join a Special U.S. Election Open Forum on Thursday October 1, 9:00 a.m. DC time and 20:00 Jakarta time.  

We are delighted our expert speakers are Mr. Casimir A. Yost, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, and Dr. Jonah Blank, Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation. Both are former senior staff at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There will also be scope for a Q and A period. 

This event is part of USINDO’s U.S. Presidential Election Open Forum Series, which also covers Indonesian presidential elections.

Please register now here and join us for this highly informative event!
Speaker's Biography

Mr. Casimir A. Yost returned to Georgetown University in 2013, after four years of government service. He is a senior fellow in the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and teaches in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. His other research interests include: U.S. foreign and national security policies with particular emphasis on the Middle East and East Asia, and energy futures. Prior to his government service Mr. Yost worked in academic, non-profit, government, and corporate positions. 

From 1994 to 2009, Mr. Yost was at Georgetown University, first as Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and Marshall B. Coyne Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and then, for the 2008-2009 academic year, as chair of the International Relations and Security Concentration of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program.  

From 1986 to 1994 Mr. Yost lived in Northern California where he served for four years as President of the World Affairs Council of Northern California and for an additional four years as Executive Director of the Asia Foundation’s Center for Asian Pacific Affairs. 

From 1977 to 1986 Mr. Yost held staff positions in the United States Senate first as Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Charles McC.Mathias, Jr. (R-MD) and then, from 1982 to 1986, as Staff Director for the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy of the Committee on Foreign Relations. From 1972 to 1977, Mr. Yost worked for First National City Bank (Citibank) in Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. 

Mr. Yost has written extensively on U.S. foreign and security policies. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and has a Master of Science in Foreign Service degree from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and on the Advisory Council of the American Ditchley Foundation and the Advisory Council of the Eurasia Foundation. 

Dr. Jonah Blank is adjunct lecturer with the South Asia Studies program and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. An anthropologist by training, he is author of the books “Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam & Modernity Among the Daudi Bohras”, and “Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana through India.” 

From 1999-2011, Dr. Blank served as Policy Director for South and Southeast Asia on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  

Before entering government service, he served as senior editor and foreign correspondent for US News & World Report, where he reported from Indonesia, India, Nepal and Pakistan.  

Dr. Blank began his career in Japan, as finance editor of Tokyo's Asahi Evening News. He has been a reporter for Fortune magazine, and written for publications ranging from Foreign Affairs to The New Yorker to The Washington Post.  

Dr. Blank received his MA and PhD from Harvard University. 
The United States-Indonesia Society's mission is to foster greater mutual understanding between the United States and Indonesia, enhance bilateral relations, and deepen the U.S.-Indonesia Strategic Partnership. We implement our mission through public discussions in each country and long-term bi-national programs in education, legislative, and other sectors, including the Indonesia-U.S. Council on Religion and Pluralism.