***Please note: This event has been postponed. If you purchased a ticket, our box office will be in touch regarding your refund. We will announce a new event date in the coming weeks.***

Lunch available from 12:30 p.m.
Discussion begins at 1:00 p.m.

***Complimentary copies of Mr. Rudd’s book will be available at the event ***

Kevin Rudd is Australia’s 26th prime minister. In fact, he is one of the few Australians to have served twice as his country’s prime minister. He was also Australia’s foreign minister between 2010 and 2012. 

In his new book, The PM Years, Rudd recounts his early triumphs and challenges in the business of government. The book deals with Rudd’s relationship with the Bush and Obama administrations during the Global Financial Crisis, a challenging relationship with China, as well as his global activism on climate change. A controversial figure in Australian domestic politics, Rudd began his prime ministership by delivering a national apology to Aboriginal Australians, as well as initiating a range of far-reaching reforms in Australian health and education policy. He also introduced Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme. But beyond the policy challenges he tackled, Rudd takes us into cabinet, the prime minister’s office, and the back-corridor conversations that reshaped the country. 

After years of silence, in this second volume of his autobiography, the 26th prime minister of Australia and the current president of the Asia Society Policy Institute finally goes on the record about his time in government. At this launch of his book in the United States, Rudd will share the story of his ups and downs in office. Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute and Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon professor of government at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School will join Rudd in conversation. 

"Kevin is somebody who I probably share as much of a world view as any world leader out there. I find him smart but humble. He works wonderfully well in multilateral settings; he's always constructive, incisive. And you know I think he is, like me, a pragmatic person. I think he comes to the job wanting to provide better opportunities not just for this generation but for the next. But I think you know he's somebody who isn't an academic, or just thinking about abstract ideas; I think he's constantly thinking in very practical terms about how to get something done." Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America.

 Speakers

The Hon. Kevin Rudd is inaugural President of the Asia Society Policy Institute. He served as 26th Prime Minister of Australia (2007 to 2010, 2013) and as Foreign Minister (2010 to 2012). He is a Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House and the Paulson Institute, and a Distinguished Statesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also a member of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization’s Group of Eminent Persons.

Ian Bremmer is President and Founder of the Eurasia Group, and the Harold J. Newman Distinguished Fellow in Geopolitics at the Asia Society Policy Institute. He is also the president and founder of GZERO Media, a Eurasia Group company dedicated to helping a broad, global audience make sense of today's leaderless world. Ian is a prolific thought leader, author and noted lecturer, regularly expressing his views on political issues in public speeches, television appearances, and top publications. He is the author of several books, and his latest is titled Us Vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism. 

Graham Allison is the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School and former Director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Dr. Allison has served as Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense under President Reagan and as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans under President Clinton. He is the author of several best-selling books, including his latest titled, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?.

Josette Sheeran is the seventh President and CEO of Asia Society. She is responsible for advancing the organization’s global work in the fields of arts and culture, policy and business, and education. Sheeran also serves as the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, representing the UN Secretary-General in advancing Haiti's 2030 vision and in helping secure an end to the transmission of cholera in Haiti. Sheeran is former vice chair of the World Economic Forum, known for its annual Davos convening and Davos in China.