Speaker biographies

Dan Blumenthal joined AEI in November 2004 as a resident fellow in Asian studies. He has served on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission since 2005, serving as vice chairman in 2007, and as a member of the Academic Advisory Board for the Congressional U.S.-China Working Group. Previously, Mr. Blumenthal was senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the first George W. Bush administration. In addition to writing for AEI’s Asian Outlook series, he has written articles and op-eds for the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, National Review, and numerous edited volumes. He is currently working on a manuscript that will examine divides within the China policymaking community.

Aaron Friedberg is a professor of politics and international affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He served as a deputy assistant for national security affairs in the Office of the Vice President from 2003 to 2005 and is a member of the Defense Policy Board. Mr. Friedberg was the first Henry Alfred Kissinger Scholar in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress in 2001. He is the author of In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America’s Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy (Princeton University Press, 2000) and The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905 (Princeton University Press, 1998), which received the Edgar Furniss National Security Book Award.

James Mann is an author-in-residence at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is a former Washington reporter, columnist, and foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Mann was awarded the Edward Weintal Prize in 1999 for distinguished coverage of foreign policy and the Edwin M. Hood Award for diplomatic reporting. He has also contributed to National Public Radio, The Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, and the Washington Post. He is the author of four books: Beijing Jeep (Simon & Schuster, 1989), About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship With China (Knopf, 1999), the New York Times bestseller Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (Viking, 2004), and The China Fantasy (Viking, 2007). His forthcoming book, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War, will be published by Viking in March.

View Event Details