March 14, 2005

Speaker Biographies

Daniel Blumenthal joined AEI in November 2004 as a resident fellow in Asian studies. Previously, he was the 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 that capacity, he led a team that formulated and implemented defense policies and programs toward and for these portfolio countries. Before his service at the Department of Defense, he was a lawyer practicing in New York and a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Phillip C. Saunders has been a senior research professor at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies since January 2004. He previously worked at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he served as director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies from 1999-2004 and taught courses on Chinese politics, Chinese foreign policy, and East Asian security. Mr. Saunders has conducted research and consulted on East Asian security issues for Princeton University, the Council on Foreign Relations, RAND, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Dr. Saunders served as an officer in the United States Air Force from 1989–1993, working on Asian security issues at the Pentagon. He has published numerous articles on China, North Korea, and Asian security in journals including International Security, China Quarterly, The China Journal, Survival, Pacific Review, and Orbis. He speaks Mandarin Chinese and has traveled throughout East Asia.

David Shambaugh is a professor of political science and international affairs and the director of the China Policy program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University (1996 to present), and is a non-resident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution (1998 to present). He has authored four books and edited twelve. His newest study, Modernizing China's Military, was published by the University of California Press in 2003. Mr. Shambaugh has also published articles in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Survival, The China Quarterly, The China Journal, Washington Quarterly, World Policy Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Far Eastern Economic Review, Asian Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, and other periodicals, and is a frequent commentator in international media. Mr. Shambaugh has been a visiting scholar at numerous institutions in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, Russia, Japan, and the United States. Most recently, he was selected as a 2002–2003 fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Ashley J. Tellis is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He served in the U.S. Department of State as senior advisor to the ambassador at the Embassy of the United States in India, and then briefly on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and senior director, strategic planning and Southwest Asia. Prior to his government service, Mr. Tellis was a senior policy analyst at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the RAND Graduate School. Tellis's research interests focus on international relations theory, military strategy and proliferation issues, South Asian politics, and U.S.-Asian security relations. His academic publications have appeared in several edited volumes and journals, including the Journal of Strategic Studies, Asian Survey, Orbis, Comparative Strategy, Naval War College Review, and Security Studies.