Perhaps the most pressing current issue facing U.S. leaders is how to revive the American economy while battling continuing fallout from other countries’ financial instability.

David Adelman 89L, U.S. ambassador to Singapore, will join three other U.S. ambassadors at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28, for “The Fulcrum of the Pivot: ASEAN at the Center of 21st-Century Global Business and Politics,” a roundtable discussion about the role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the global economy. The event will be held in Emory Law’s Tull Auditorium, and a question-and-answer period will follow.

Adelman will be joined by Paul W. Jones, U.S. ambassador to Malaysia; Derek J. Mitchell, U.S. ambassador to Myanmar; and David L. Carden, the first U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The event, part of the Halle Institute’s Speaker Series, is co-sponsored by Emory Law and the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council. While free and open to the public, registration is required.

Adelman, a former partner at Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan and member of the Georgia Senate, has been a champion of public interest initiatives at Emory, in Georgia, and across the nation throughout his career. 

Adelman has held his ambassador post since 2010, where he shepherds trade missions and coordinates military cooperation and partnership talks. During his tenure, the U.S. has seen a historic increase in exports (more than 45 percent, according to the embassy) and all-time high direct foreign investment in Singapore. In 2011, the embassy earned the State Department’s global award for promoting the President’s National Export Initiative. Adelman also established the U.S.-Singapore Third Country Training Program where both countries work jointly to better health care, education and the environment in the Lower Mekong.