Honolulu International Forum featuring James A. Kelly and Ralph Cossa

20 January, 2022
12:00 pm

The Year That Was and Will Be

James A. Kelly is Chairman of the Board and President Emeritus of Pacific Forum, as well as a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. President George W. Bush nominated him on April 3, 2001; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 26, 2001, and sworn in on May 1, 2001. From 1994 to 2001, Mr. Kelly was president of Pacific Forum CSIS. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Kelly was president of EAP Associates, Inc., of Honolulu, which provided international business consulting services with an Asia/Pacific focus to private clients. Earlier, he served at the White House as special assistant for national security affairs to President Ronald Reagan and as senior director for Asian affairs for the National Security Council from 1986 to 1989 under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. From 1983 to 1986, Mr. Kelly was at the Pentagon as deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs (East Asia and Pacific). He earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard School of Business Administration 1968. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (B.S., 1959) and the National War College (1977). He served in the U.S. Navy from 1959 to 1982, concluding his active duty as a captain in the Supply Corps.

Ralph Cossa is President Emeritus of Pacific Forum and WSD-Handa Chair in Peace Studies. He is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum’s Experts and Eminent Persons Group and a founding member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific’s Steering Committee. Mr. Cossa is a political/military affairs and national security specialist with more than 50 years of experience in formulating, articulating, and implementing US security policy in the Asia-Pacific and Near East–South Asia regions. Mr. Cossa served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966 to 1993, achieving the rank of colonel and last serving as special assistant to the commander of the US Pacific Command. He previously served as Deputy Director for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies and earlier as a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Mr. Cossa holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, an M.S. in strategic studies from the Defense Intelligence College, and a B.A. in international relations from Syracuse University. He also received an honorary PhD in international relations from the University of Cambodia.