East Meets West

David Adam Smith serves as the U.S. representative for Washington's 9th congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, Smith previously served in the Washington State Senate. A graduate of the University of Washington School of Law, Smith briefly worked as a prosecutor and pro tem judge for the city of Seattle before entering politics. Smith was elected to the State Senate in 1990; at age 25, he was the youngest state senator in the country. He ran in and won his first congressional race in 1996, and has been reelected 11 times. Since 2019, he has chaired the House Armed Services Committee. Smith is a member of the New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He is the dean of Washington's House delegation. Adam Smith was born on June 15, 1965, in Washington, D.C. Adam was raised in SeaTac, Washington where his father, Ben, worked as a ramp serviceman at SeaTac Airport and was active in the local Machinists’ Union. His mother, Leila, stayed at home, raising Adam and his two brothers. Adam attended Bow Lake Elementary, Chinook Middle School, and Tyee High School, graduating from Tyee in 1983. After a year at Western Washington University, Adam transferred to Fordham University, where he worked his way through college loading trucks for United Parcel Service and graduated in 1987 with a degree in Political Science. Following his graduation, Adam attended the University Of Washington School Of Law, and earned his law degree in 1990. He later worked in both private and public practice, first as a lawyer at Cromwell, Mendoza and Belur in 1992, and then as a prosecutor for the City of Seattle from 1993-1995. As a prosecutor, Adam focused on drunk driving and domestic violence cases, and in 1996, went on to work as a judge pro tempore. During his final year at UW, Adam decided to run for the State Senate in the 33rd Legislative District, where he grew up. He campaigned door to door, eventually doorbelling the entire district twice and defeating the 16 year incumbent in the 1990 election. While in the State Senate, Adam served on the Education and Law and Justice Committees, and served as Chair of the Law and Justice Committee from 1993-1997. Despite the strong Republican tide in 1994, Adam was re-elected to the State Senate in 1994 and his victory helped the Democrats retain control of the State Senate by one seat. During his time in the State Senate, Adam developed a reputation for having a thoughtful and common sense approach to governance.

Elected to the United States Senate by the people of Maryland in November 2016, Chris Van Hollen is committed to fighting every day to ensure that our state and our country live up to their full promise of equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity. Senator Van Hollen believes that every child deserves the opportunity to pursue their dreams and benefit from a quality education, and that anyone willing to work hard should be able to find a good job.  That's why his top priorities include creating more and better jobs, strengthening small businesses, and increasing educational and job training opportunities for individuals of all ages and in every community. Senator Van Hollen started his time in public service as a member of the Maryland State Legislature, where he became known as a tenacious advocate for everyday Marylanders and someone who was unafraid to take on powerful special interests on behalf of working people. In 2002, he was elected to represent Maryland's 8th Congressional District. In the House of Representatives, he served as a member of the Democratic leadership and was elected by his colleagues to be the Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee and protect vital interests like Social Security and Medicare. A tireless fighter for the people of Maryland, Senator Van Hollen has also become known for working hard to find common sense solutions to difficult national issues.  In January 2015, he released a comprehensive plan to address the problem of growing inequality in America and provide a blueprint for building an economy that works for everyone, a goal that he will continue to fight for in the U.S. Senate. Senator Van Hollen is proud to have worked successfully with members of both parties to pass bipartisan legislation whenever possible on issues of common concern, including expanding medical research, protecting the Chesapeake Bay, fighting childhood cancer, and passing the ABLE Act to assist families with children with disabilities. Chris Van Hollen is a graduate of Swarthmore College, the John F. Kennedy School of Public Policy at Harvard University, and Georgetown University Law Center where he attended night school.  He and his wife, Katherine Wilkens, are the proud parents of three children, Anna, Nicholas, and Alexander.

Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, a role he assumed in November 2020 after two years as the magazine's managing editor. Before joining FP, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. Agrawal has shared a Peabody Award and three Emmy nominations for his work as a TV producer, and his writing for FP was part of a series nominated for a 2020 National Magazine Award for columns and commentary. Agrawal is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

Andrew Bacevich co-founded the Quincy Institute in 2019 and is the Chairman of the institution’s board of directors. He is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University. A graduate of West Point and Princeton, he served in the army before becoming an academic. Bacevich is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books, among them: The New American Militarism (2005), The Limits of Power (2008), Washington Rules (2010), America’s War for the Greater Middle East (2016), The Age of Illusions (2020), After the Apocalypse (2021), Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out against America’s Forever Wars (2022), and On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century (2022).

Nisha Biswal is DFC’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Biswal was nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 27, 2023. Ms. Biswal brings over 30 years of experience in U.S. foreign policy and international development programs, including in the Executive Branch, Congress, and the private sector. Prior to joining DFC, Ms. Biswal served as the senior vice president for international strategy and global initiatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and oversaw the U.S. India Business Council and the U.S. Bangladesh Business Council. Ms. Biswal served as Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 2013 to 2017. There, she oversaw the U.S.-India strategic partnership during a period of unprecedented cooperation, including the launch of an annual U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. She also initiated the C5+1 Dialogue with Central Asia and the U.S.-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue during her tenure as Assistant Secretary. Prior to that, Ms. Biswal was assistant administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), directing and supervising USAID programs and operations across South, Central, and Southeast Asia. She also spent over a decade on Capitol Hill, working as staff director on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee on Appropriations as well as professional staff on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives. Ms. Biswal previously served as the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid and on the Board of the National Democratic Institute and the U.S. Institute of Peace International Advisory Council. She also was a member of the USIP Afghanistan Study Group and the Aspen Institute’s India-US Track 2 Dialogue on Climate and Energy. Ms. Biswal is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia, where she studied international relations and economics.

Zack Cooper is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies US strategy in Asia, including alliance dynamics and US-China competition. He also teaches at Princeton University and is currently writing a book that explains how militaries change during power shifts. Before joining AEI, Dr. Cooper was the senior fellow for Asian security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He previously worked as codirector of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He also served as assistant to the deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism at the National Security Council and as a special assistant to the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy at the Department of Defense. Dr. Cooper has been published in academic journals, including International Security and Security Studies, and in the popular press, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among other outlets. He has also authored a variety of studies on Asia, on topics including US military strategy and posture in Asia, Chinese coercion, and US defense cooperation with regional allies and partners. He is the coeditor of two books, Postwar Japan: Growth, Security, and Uncertainty Since 1945 (CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and Strategic Japan: New Approaches to Foreign Policy and the U.S.-Japan Alliance (CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). Dr. Cooper graduated from Princeton University with a PhD and an MA in security studies and an MPA in international relations. He received a BA in public policy from Stanford University.

Joyce Chang is Chair of Global Research for J.P. Morgan’s Corporate and Investment Bank. She has spent more than 30 years working in Global Research, with expertise in Macro, Fixed Income, Cross-Asset, Emerging Markets, Geopolitical, Strategic and Thematic Research. Joyce was most recently Global Head of Research, a role she held for more than five years (2014-2019).She was previously Global Head of Fixed Income Research and began her career as an Emerging Markets Strategist. From 1997 through 2012, Joyce held top rankings inInstitutional Investor surveys for Emerging Markets research, earning 25 #1 individual rankings. In 2014, she was inducted into the Fixed Income Analyst Society Hall of Fame. In 2022, J.P. Morgan was named the top Global Research Team, #1 Global Equity Research Team, and the #1 Global Fixed Income Research team by Institutional Investor. Joyce was a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers prior to joining J.P.Morgan Chase in 1999. She is the Executive Sponsor for J.P. Morgan Chase’s network for employees of Asian heritage (AsPIRE) and on the Executive Committee of the Corporate andInvestment Bank’s Women on The Move network. She serves on the Board of Directors of the German Marshall Fund, Trickle Up and the Fixed Income Analyst Society as well as the advisory boards for the Bretton Woods Committee, Center of Financial Stability and the Ray Dalio Health Justice Center at New York Presbyterian. She is also a member of the Council onForeign Relations and Inter-American Dialogue. She has been named as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance by American Banker and included in Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in Finance lists in past years. Joyce holds an M.P.A. from Princeton and serves on its External Advisory Council for the Center for Public Policy, and has a B.A. from Columbia from where she was awarded the John Jay award for professional achievement and serves on its Board of Visitors and the Board of Directors for the Asian Columbia Alumni Association. She is also a member of Georgetown’sGlobal Business Advisory Board.

Bob Davis has covered most every big economic story of the past 40 years including the rise of China, the challenge from Japan and the global financial crisis. Along the way, he covered the Gulf War and the space program and was posted overseas in China and Europe. He was part of a team of reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for  coverage of the Russian financial crisis. In 2022, Davis retired from the Wall Street Journal as a senior editor in Washington DC after decades  at the newspaper. He continues to write for the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, Politico Magazine, The Wire China and other publications. His 2020 book, “Superpower Showdown,” with Lingling Wei on the U.S.-China trade and economic battles was chosen by Book Authority as one of the top economy books of the year.  Business Week called an earlier book on the U.S. economy, "Prosperity," with David Wessel, one of the year's 10 best business books. In 2016, Davis traveled around the U.S. examining the economic and social changes behind the Trump and Sanders phenomenon. He won a SABEW, Best in the Business Award, for a series of stories based on that work. From 2011 through 2014, he covered the Chinese economy from Beijing and traveled widely throughout China. He and his wife wrote an e-book in 2015 for the Wall Street Journal based on their experiences, called "Beijing from A-to-Z." In 2000, he was awarded the Raymond Clapper award for Washington reporting for coverage of White House negotiations with China over the World Trade Organization.  A year earlier, he was part of a team of Journal reporters that won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for coverage of the Russian financial crisis.

Commissioner Kimberly Glas was reappointed by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer for a term expiring December 31, 2024. She served as Vice Chair of the Commission for the 2022 report cycle. Commissioner Glas joined the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) in May 2019 as President and CEO representing domestic manufacturers of textiles and apparel. She has over two decades experience in government and policy advocacy focused on economics, trade, and manufacturing. She served as Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a non-profit partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations. In that capacity, she led an organization that works to advance policies to help achieve a stronger economy and a more sustainable future at the intersection of energy, the environment, and trade. Before leading the BlueGreen Alliance, Commissioner Glas served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that role, she worked to improve the domestic and international competitiveness of the broad product range of U.S. industries. Commissioner Glas served for a decade on Capitol Hill working extensively on manufacturing, trade, and economic policy issues for Congressman Michael H. Michaud from Maine and Congressman John J. LaFalce from New York. As Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Congressman Michaud, she led efforts to establish the House Trade Working Group, a key coalition of Members of Congress that works extensively on trade policy and domestic competitiveness issues to this day. Ms. Glas earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Geneseo.

Bonnie S. Glaser is managing director of GMF’s Indo-Pacific program. She is also a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. She is a co-author of US-Taiwan Relations: Will China's Challenge Lead to a Crisis (Brookings Press, April 2023). She was previously senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy for more than three decades.  From 2008 to mid-2015, she was a senior adviser with the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies, and from 2003 to 2008, she was a senior associate in the CSIS International Security Program. Prior to joining CSIS, she served as a consultant for various U.S. government offices, including the Departments of Defense and State. Ms. Glaser has published widely in academic and policy journals, including the Washington Quarterly, China Quarterly, Asian Survey, International Security, Contemporary Southeast Asia, American Foreign Policy Interests, Far Eastern Economic Review, and Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, as well as in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and in various edited volumes on Asian security. She is currently a board member of the U.S. Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She served as a member of the Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board China Panel in 1997. Ms. Glaser received her B.A. in political science from Boston University and her M.A. with concentrations in international economics and Chinese studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Lyle J. Goldstein is Visiting Professor at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. At Brown, he is investigating the costs of great power competition with both China and Russia in association with the Costs of War Project at Watson. He is also assisting in the further development of Watson’s China Initiative. Goldstein serves concurrently as Director of Asia Engagement at the Washington think-tank Defense Priorities, which advocates for realism and restraint in U.S. defense policy. In this role, he is overseeing a range of studies that evaluate U.S. foreign policy and defense strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, including with respect to such key flashpoints as the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, the Sino-Indian border, and also the status of Taiwan. He maintains expertise in both Chinese and Russian military strategic development, and also has expertise on particular issues in the China-Russia relationship, including especially the Arctic and also Central Asia. In Oct 2021, Goldstein retired after 20 years of service on the faculty at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) after being promoted by his peers to the rank of Full Professor. During his career at NWC, he founded the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) and has been awarded the Superior Civilian Service Medal for this achievement. He has written or edited seven books on Chinese strategy and continues to work on a book length project that examines the nature of China-Russia relations in the 21st century. Goldstein has his PhD from Princeton, an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and his BA from Harvard. He is fluent in both Chinese and Russian languages, and is now studying Korean.

Amelia Lester is the executive editor at Foreign Policy. She has worked as a journalist on three continents, most recently reporting in Japan for publications including the Economist, the New York Times, and the New York Review of Books. Previously, she was the editor in chief of the weekend magazine of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age newspapers and, before that, managing editor and an executive editor at the New Yorker. Lester lives in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Harvard University.

Joanna Lewis is Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program (STIA) at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She has over two decades of experience working on international climate and clean energy policy with a focus on China. At Georgetown she runs the Clean Energy and Climate Research Group and leads several dialogues facilitating U.S.-China climate change engagement. Lewis is also a faculty affiliate in the China Energy Group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her new book, Cooperating for the Climate: Learning from International Partnerships in China’s Clean Energy Sector was recently released by MIT Press. She is also the author of the award-winning book Green Innovation in China, and was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report. Lewis has worked for a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations including the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the Asia Society and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and has been a visiting scholar at Tsinghua University, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the East-West Center. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies, among others. Lewis holds a Master’s and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University.

Amy Mackinnon is an award-winning national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. She has reported from across Eastern Europe and was previously based in Moscow and in Tbilisi, Georgia, as senior editor for the crisis reporting site Coda Story. Mackinnon is a recipient of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award for her reporting on homophobic vigilantes in Russia. She speaks Russian and has a master’s degree in journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and a dual master’s in Russian, Central, and East European studies from the University of Glasgow and Corvinus University of Budapest.

Sarang Shidore is Director of the Global South Program at the Quincy Institute, and a senior non-resident fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks. He is also a member of the adjunct faculty at George Washington University, where he teaches a class on the geopolitics of climate change. His areas of research and analysis are geopolitical risk, grand strategy, and climate security, with a special emphasis on the Global South and Asia. Sarang has more than 100 publications to his credit in journals, edited volumes, and media outlets in his areas of expertise, including in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Nation, South China Morning Post, Council on Foreign Relations and others. Prior to his current role at the Quincy Institute, Sarang was a senior research scholar at the University of Texas at Austin and senior global analyst at the geopolitical risk firm Stratfor Inc. and previously also spent more than a decade in engineering and product management in the technology industry.

Rick Waters is the managing director of Eurasia Group's China practice. Drawing on his decades of experience in the US foreign service, Rick leads the firm's China expertise and client offerings. His research interests include China's global and regional diplomacy, US-China relations, and China's domestic political economy.

Rick joined Eurasia Group after a 27-year career as the US State Department's top China policy official, overseeing the creation of the Office of China Coordination, informally known as the China House, and concurrently serving as deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan. Rick also held multiple roles at the US embassy in Beijing—including during the period between the accidental US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and the Hainan Island incident in 2001.  

Fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, Rick also speaks Arabic and worked for more than a decade on Middle East issues, including as director for Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan at the National Security Council under George W. Bush and as political counselor in Jerusalem and Islamabad. A graduate of Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, Rick is based in Eurasia Group's Washington, DC, office. When not immersed in all things China, he enjoys hiking and sailing with his wife and unruly Labrador.