Sri Lanka to be subject of virtual April 6 Member Author event

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, a new member of the National Press Club, plans to discuss his latest book, Conundrum of an Island: Sri Lanka’s Geopolitical Challenges, at a virtual Member Author event at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 6.

Asanga is a Sri Lankan native, journalist and activist.

“Having first-hand witnessed the almost three-decade civil war, a youth insurrection and narrowly escaping a terror attack on Easter Sunday, I wanted to capture and share the internal and external challenges Sri Lanka was facing,” he said in explaining his motivation for writing this book.

Mmembers and the general public are invited to join the discussion by emailing Heather Forsgren Weaver at [email protected] to receive the link and be placed on the RSVP list. Only those names on the RSVP list will be admitted to the event.

The book contains a series of essays covering topics and themes to help the reader understand Sri Lanka. Conundrum reveals domestic political disputes, terrorist attacks and national-security challenges, and Sri Lanka’s relationships with neighboring countries.

In the book, Asanga delves into security problems that he said have plagued Sri Lanka from challenges with Islamist extremists to “challenges in the aerial, maritime and cyber domains.”

Asanga is a senior fellow at the Millennium Project in Washington. He led two government think tanks on foreign policy and security in Sri Lanka and served as founding director general of the National Security Think Tank and the Ministry of Defense. Internationally, he has experience as a professor and strategic advisor.

He has written for newspapers in Sri Lanka and has authored three books.

The Member Author Book Group produces events for Club members to promote their recently published books. The group meets – currently virtually -- at noon on the second Tuesday of the month. To inquire about the group, contact Joe Motheral at [email protected].