Patricia M. Kim

Patricia M. Kim is a leading expert on Chinese foreign policy, U.S.–China relations, and East Asian politics and security. She is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program with a joint appointment to the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and the author of “No Constraints: China’s Global Quest for Partners and Influence,” forthcoming with Princeton University Press in late 2026. At Brookings, she co-leads the Assessing China Project, a signature initiative of the Foreign Policy program focused on producing rigorous, policy-relevant analysis of China’s global strategy and its implications for the United States and the international order.

Kim previously served as a senior China specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she led analytical work on U.S.–China strategic stability and directed a major research effort on China’s expanding influence across Africa and the Middle East. She has held fellowships at the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Princeton University. Kim regularly briefs senior U.S. government officials and has provided expert testimony to the House Intelligence Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. Her writing and analysis have appeared widely in leading policy journals and major international media outlets.

Kim holds a doctorate in politics from Princeton University and a bachelor’s, with highest distinction, in political science and Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a nonresident fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School.

Affiliations:

• National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, member
• Yale Law School, Paul Tsai China Center, nonresident fellow