David Shambaugh

About

David Shambaugh is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years. He also holds positions at George Washington University as Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, International Affairs and Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs.

Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and award-winning author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. He is a former nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and former acting director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center. He also served in the US Department of State and the National Security Council during the Carter administration, on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, on the Advisory Council of the National Bureau of Asian Research, and on the East-West Center Fellowship Board, and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a member of other public policy and scholarly organizations. Before joining the George Washington faculty, Shambaugh was lecturer, senior lecturer, and reader in Chinese politics from 1988 to 1996 at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, where he also served as editor of the China Quarterly.

Shambaugh has been selected for numerous awards and grants, including as a distinguished fellow at the Wilson Center, Senior Fulbright Scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, distinguished research professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and distinguished visiting professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, along with other visiting appointments in Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Russia. He has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Hinrich Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, the British Academy, and the US National Academy of Sciences. 

An active public intellectual and frequent commentator in the international media, he serves on numerous editorial boards, and has been a consultant to governments, research institutions, foundations, universities, corporations, banks, and investment funds.  

As an author, Shambaugh has published 36 books (11 single-authored, 25 edited). Among the most recent are International Relations of Asia (3rd ed. 2022), China’s Leaders: From Mao to Now (2021, 2nd ed. 2023), Where Great Powers Meet: America & China in Southeast Asia (2021), China & the World (2020), China’s Future (2016), and The China Reader: Rising Power (2016). He is currently finishing a new book, America & China: Broken Engagement (2025).

Shambaugh earned his BA in East Asian studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, an MA in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.