Just came back from lunch with prof Lieberthal. Fascinating speaker, even in this informal setting. He touched briefly on his time in Washington, but spent most of lunch talking about the North Korea situtation, possible Taiwan showdown scenarios, and his trips to China (about 10 a year!). He really has a soft spot for North Korea, especially in light of what awful shape the country is in. It's fascinating and admirable what a passion he feels about certain subjects and people, something I've been trying to emulate in myself. I figure it's better than apathy, as long as you put careful thought into what you get passionate about.

An encouraging thing he mentioned is that he only got interested in China during grad school in potical science, as he had been a Russia major in his undergrad years. There is hope!