Washington, District of Columbia, United States
I'm Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, overseeing work at offices in Washington, New Delhi, and Singapore on both East Asia and South Asia. I was the 2019-2020 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia and co-host the Politics Possible podcast. Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, then two postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University, my career has spanned government, market and corporate advisory, nonprofits, and three regions of Asia. From 2001 to 2009, in the Bush Administration, I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia, Member of the Policy Planning Staff with principal responsibility for East Asia, advising two Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and as a China adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick. I led several high-stakes diplomatic negotiations, including with India and Kazakhstan, and received five Superior Honors Awards from the State Department. Outside of government, I was founding Vice Chairman and first director of The Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago, established by former Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson, and cofounder of MacroPolo, a digital platform on the Chinese economy. I was a senior advisor at Macro Advisory Partners, advising a range of market and corporate clients, and previously headed the worldwide Asia Practice at the advisory firm Eurasia Group; was Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; taught at Harvard as Lecturer on Government in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and at the Naval Postgraduate School as Lecturer of National Security Affairs; and was Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. I've authored books and monographs, including The United States in the New Asia, and China’s Techno-Warriors: National Security and Strategic Competition from the Nuclear to the Information Age, selected by Foreign Affairs as a best book on Asia of 2003. I've written reports on Asian technology futures, especially in Korea and Taiwan, and publish widely on geopolitics and geoeconomics, US strategy in Asia, China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and Central Asia. I'm a member of the advisory board of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, was its 2023 Leadership Honoree and its 2023, 2025, and 2026 co-chair, and of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Cosmos Club.
As Vice President for Studies at America's oldest international affairs think tank, founded in 1910, I lead a large, best-in-class Asia-focused team of scholars and practitioners at offices in Washington, New Delhi, and Singapore, and with other team members located in Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Palo Alto, Seoul, and Tokyo. I'm also a member of Carnegie's management committee. I oversee research, strategy, program fundraising, planning, hiring, and program execution across these two Asia-based centers and two Washington-based programs. A global think tank, Carnegie leverages its network of over 150 experts to better understand the threats and opportunities affecting global security and well-being. As Vice President for Studies, I lead strategy, fundraising, recruitment, and research on a region with 4.5 billion people, projected to comprise 58% of global GDP by 2030, which also includes six countries with nuclear weapons, unresolved territorial disputes, powerfully clashing nationalisms, and enormous potential for disruptive geopolitical and technology risk.
Member of the advisory board and 2023, 2025, and 2026 co-chair of the AALD, a private diplomatic initiative that brings together Australian and American leaders from government, enterprise, media, education and the community to help review and refine the parameters of the Australian-American bilateral relationship.
Held the University of Virginia's James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professorship at the Miller Center, established in 2007 "to bring public servants of great distinction to the University." Schlesinger served as Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy, in addition to heading the Central Intelligence Agency and the Atomic Energy Commission, while playing key roles in numerous other government bodies during a distinguished career in public service. Building on Schlesinger’s interest in strategic matters, the Schlesinger Professorship provides a unique opportunity for public servants who have experience with foreign policy and national security to participate as visiting faculty in programs at the Miller Center and engage with students at the University.
Private advisory to a wide range of market and corporate clients on China and the broader Asian region for this London, New York, and Copenhagen-based advisory firm. Extensive advisory work on China and Taiwan, as well as periodic advisory work on India, Southeast Asia, Central Asia (mainly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan), and Australia.
While serving as vice chairman of the Paulson Institute, co-founded its digital venture on the Chinese economy. Helped to establish its focus in three core areas: political economy, technology, and energy, with a focus on both China and cross-cutting themes and global dynamics. Helped to plan and develop creative multimedia, digital products, and interactives, while developing several uniquely and creatively branded publication suites focused on global technology standard-setting, cross-border investment, policy analysis, and macroeconomics and political economy.