Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense James Clad, who was previously in-charge of Defense/Security affairs for Asia Pacific from 2007 to 2009 in the administration of Republican President George W. Bush, was seated at the inaugural Galle Dialogue in 2010 [far right] while SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was delivering inauguration address. James Clad delivered the keynote address. In 2016, he was backing Hillary Clinton in the U.S. election even though he served under a Republican president. He is currently a senior fellow for Asia at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington DC