Ambassador Jeffrey A. Bader Named Senior Fellow and Director of Brookings China Initiative

Jeffrey A. Bader, former ambassador and senior official at the State Department, National Security Council, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, joins the Brookings Institution on April 11 as the first director of the Brookings China Initiative. The Initiative was established in 2004 through the generosity of Brookings Chairman John L. Thornton, and will serve as a home for scholarship, programs, and public policy discussion on China. The Initiative will explore the dynamics of China’s transformation and emergence as a political and economic power and the implications for the United States, China, the East Asian region, and the world. Ambassador Bader will also serve as a Brookings senior fellow.

“Jeff brings to Brookings a wealth of experience managing American political, security and economic relations with China. While serving in government under the last five presidents, he has held almost every significant position involving China,” said James B. Steinberg, vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies.

“The rise of China and its impact on the world is the most important geo-political event of the twenty-first century,” said Thornton, who is also a professor of Global Leadership at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “Under Jeff’s leadership, Brookings is now poised to establish itself as the primary destination for both Chinese and American policy makers seeking to understand China’s critically important role in today’s world.”

Most of Ambassador Bader’s 27-year career with the U.S. government focused on China and East Asia. He was involved in many of the major U.S. policy decisions and events involving China from the 1980s until his retirement. He played an important role in rebuilding U.S.-China relations during the 1990s, working on critical political, security, economic, and commercial aspects of the relationship. In 2001, he led the team that completed negotiations on China’s and Taiwan’s accessions to the World Trade Organization. Since retiring from the government in 2002, he has been senior vice president at the global strategy group Stonebridge International LLC.

Ambassador Bader has been a frequent speaker before university, think tank, and business audiences on the subjects of China and East Asia, and has testified on numerous occasions before committees of the United States Congress. He is a frequent commentator in the media on China, having appeared on CNN, Fox News, C-SPAN, ABC’s “Nightline,” and NPR, among others.

“Jeff’s wide-ranging knowledge and personal contacts on both sides of the Pacific will be an immense asset to Brookings as we seek to understand—and promote others’ understanding of—the internal transformation of China and its emergence as a major factor in the new international system,” said Strobe Talbott, president of Brookings.