People
Randall Schriver
Chairman
The Honorable Randall G. Schriver is Chairman of the Board at The Project 2049 Institute.
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The Honorable Randall G. Schriver is Chairman of the Board at The Project 2049 Institute. In addition, Mr. Schriver is currently a partner at Pacific Solutions LLC. Most recently, Mr. Schriver served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs from 8 January 2018 to 31 December 2019. Prior to his confirmation as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Schriver was a founding partner of Armitage International LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in international business development and strategies. He was also a founder of the Project 2049 Institute, and served as President and CEO. Previously, Mr. Schriver served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. From 2001 to 2003, he served as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of State. From 1994 to 1998, he worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, including as the senior official responsible for the day-to-day management of U.S. bilateral relations with the People's Liberation Army and the bilateral security and military relationships with Taiwan. Prior to his civilian service, he served as an active duty Navy Intelligence Officer from 1989 to 1991, including a deployment in support of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. After active duty, he served in the Navy Reserves for nine years, including as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an attaché at U.S. Embassy Beijing and U.S. Embassy Ulaanbaatar. Mr. Schriver has won numerous military and civilian awards from the U.S. government and was presented while at the State Department with the Order of the Propitious Clouds by the President of Taiwan for service promoting U.S.-Taiwan relations. Mr. Schriver received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Williams College and a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University.
Dan Blumenthal
Vice Chairman
Dan Blumenthal is a senior fellow and the director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute
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Dan Blumenthal is a senior fellow and the director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has served in and advised the US government on China issues for more than a decade. Before joining AEI, Mr. Blumenthal served as senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the US Department of Defense. He served as a commissioner on the congressionally mandated US-China Economic and Security Review Commission from 2006 to 2012, and he was vice chairman of the commission in 2007. He also served on the Academic Advisory Board of the congressional US-China Working Group. Mr. Blumenthal is the author of “The China Nightmare: The Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State” (AEI Press, November 2020) and coauthor of “An Awkward Embrace: The United States and China in the 21st Century” (AEI Press, November 2012).
He has testified before Congress and has been published in The Atlantic, Commentary, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, The National Interest, National Review, The New York Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, RealClearWorld, and The Wall Street Journal, among other outlets. His broadcast appearances include C-SPAN, Yahoo News, Bloomberg Radio, and many top-rated talk radio programs. Mr. Blumenthal has a JD from Duke Law School, an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis. He also attended Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, where he focused on Chinese language studies.
He has testified before Congress and has been published in The Atlantic, Commentary, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, The National Interest, National Review, The New York Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, RealClearWorld, and The Wall Street Journal, among other outlets. His broadcast appearances include C-SPAN, Yahoo News, Bloomberg Radio, and many top-rated talk radio programs. Mr. Blumenthal has a JD from Duke Law School, an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis. He also attended Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, where he focused on Chinese language studies.
Matt Pottinger
Commissioner
Matt Pottinger served at the White House for four years in senior roles on the National Security Council staff, including as Deputy National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021. In that role, Matt coordinated the full spectrum of national security policy.
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Matt Pottinger served at the White House for four years in senior roles on the National Security Council staff, including as Deputy National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021. In that role, Matt coordinated the full spectrum of national security policy. Before that he served as Senior Director for Asia, where he led the administration’s work on the Indo-Pacific region, and in particular its shift on China policy.
Before his White House service, Matt spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in China as a reporter for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He then fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine during three combat deployments between 2007 and 2010. Following active duty, Matt founded and led an Asia-focused risk consultancy and ran Asia research at an investment fund in New York.
Before his White House service, Matt spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in China as a reporter for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He then fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine during three combat deployments between 2007 and 2010. Following active duty, Matt founded and led an Asia-focused risk consultancy and ran Asia research at an investment fund in New York.
Sheena Chestnut Greitens
Commissioner
Sheena Chestnut Greitens is Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, where she directs UT's Asia Policy Program, a joint initiative of the Strauss Center for International Security & Law and the Clements Center for National Security.
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Sheena Chestnut Gretins is Associate Professor, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.
Sheena Chestnut Greitens is Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where she directs UT's Asia Policy Program, a joint initiative of the Strauss Center for International Security & Law and the Clements Center for National Security. In 2022, she is also concurrently a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Her research and policy work focuses on American national security, East Asia, and authoritarian politics and foreign policy, especially China and North Korea. Her first book, Dictators and Their Secret Police (Cambridge, 2016) won several awards, and she publishes widely in academic, policy, and media outlets. Dr. Chestnut Greitens is currently finishing her third book, which focuses on internal security and Chinese grand strategy. She holds a doctorate from Harvard University; an M.Phil from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar; and a bachelor's degree from Stanford University.
Sheena Chestnut Greitens is Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where she directs UT's Asia Policy Program, a joint initiative of the Strauss Center for International Security & Law and the Clements Center for National Security. In 2022, she is also concurrently a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Her research and policy work focuses on American national security, East Asia, and authoritarian politics and foreign policy, especially China and North Korea. Her first book, Dictators and Their Secret Police (Cambridge, 2016) won several awards, and she publishes widely in academic, policy, and media outlets. Dr. Chestnut Greitens is currently finishing her third book, which focuses on internal security and Chinese grand strategy. She holds a doctorate from Harvard University; an M.Phil from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar; and a bachelor's degree from Stanford University.
Nazak Nikakhtar
Commissioner
The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar is a commissioner of the China Economic and Strategy Initiative; an international trade and national security attorney; a partner at the Washington, DC, law firm of Wiley Rein LLP; and co-chair of Wiley’s national security practice and CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) practice.
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The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar is a commissioner of the China Economic and Strategy Initiative; an international trade and national security attorney; a partner at the Washington, DC, law firm of Wiley Rein LLP; and co-chair of Wiley’s national security practice and CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) practice. From 2018 to 2021, Ms. Nikakhtar served as the Department of Commerce’s Assistant Secretary for Industry & Analysis at the International Trade Administration (ITA). Ms. Nikakhtar also fulfilled the duties of the Under Secretary for Industry and Security at Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Ms. Nikakhtar earned her Juris Doctor and Master of Economics degrees from Syracuse University and her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Peter Berkowitz
Commissioner
Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2019-2021, he served as the Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, executive secretary of the department's Commission on Unalienable Rights, and senior adviser to the Secretary of State.
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Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2019-2021, he served as the Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, executive secretary of the department's Commission on Unalienable Rights, and senior adviser to the Secretary of State. Under his direction, the Policy Planning Staff published "The Elements of the China Challenge" (December 2022). In addition, he serves as director of studies for the Public Interest Fellowship. He researches constitutional government, conservatism and progressivism in the United States, liberal education, national security and law, Middle East politics, human rights, and U.S. foreign policy and has written books, essays, and reviews on these issues. He taught constitutional law and jurisprudence at George Mason University School of Law from 1999 to 2006, and political philosophy in the department of government at Harvard University from 1990 to 1999. He holds a JD and a PhD in political science from Yale University, an MA in philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a BA in English literature from Swarthmore College.
David Asher
Counselor
David Asher is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. His work focuses on US foreign policy in Asia, global macro strategy, economic and financial policy toward US state adversaries, strategic law enforcement, and high technology development.
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David Asher is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. His work focuses on US foreign policy in Asia, global macro strategy, economic and financial policy toward US state adversaries, strategic law enforcement, and high technology development.
Dr. Asher has advised the US government on countering money laundering, terrorism financing, and sanctions evasion schemes as well as campaigns to undermine nation-state and terrorist adversaries. He has developed and conducted whole of government investigations into international issues involving nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons development and proliferation. Over the last 25 years, he has played a senior role in economic and financial pressure campaigns involving terrorist organizations, drug cartels, and weapons proliferation networks.
Most recently in 2020 he served at the State Department, advising and supporting investigations into nuclear biological and chemical weapons proliferation and development issues. At State, he spearheaded a task force for the Office of the Secretary looking into the origins of COVID-19 and the role of the Chinese government. In 2014, Dr. Asher rejoined the Department of State where he led the development of the US government interagency and coalition economic Warfare Campaign Strategy against the Islamic State under the Presidential Special Envoy, General John Allen. This interagency and international campaign played a significant role in the destruction of the Islamic State’s finances and economic support base.
From 2008 to 2010, Dr. Asher advised the leadership of US CENTCOM on Iran-Hezbollah economic pressure strategy as well as on counterproliferation and counterterrorism operations. From 2010 to 2014, he served as a senior advisor to the US Special Operations Command for counter threat finance and counter network operations. As part of his work for CENTCOM and then SOCOM, he helped initiate and lead DEA’s Project Cassandra and Operation Titan Investigations into Lebanese Hezbollah’s global drug trafficking and money laundering networks. These investigations resulted in dozens of arrests and the largest counterterrorist civil financial action in the history of the US Department of Justice, the $483 million forfeiture claim against the Lebanese Canadian Bank (ultimately resulting in a $102 million asset forfeiture in the United States).
2001 to 2005, Dr. Asher was senior advisor for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the State Department, special coordinator of the State Department’s North Korea Working Group (under the Secretary of State), co-chair of the North Korea Activities Group Policy Coordinating Committee for the National Security Council, and US delegation adviser to the Six-Party Talks. During the George W. Bush administration, Dr. Asher developed and oversaw the global targeting and disruption of the Kim Jong-il regime’s financial, illicit trading, and WMD networks, including FBI-USSS joint investigations Royal Charm and Smoking Dragon that penetrated North Korea’s criminal state via a “double sting operation” involving undercover FBI agents operating inside the Gambino crime family. These investigations led to 87 arrests inside the US in 2005 and hundreds more in Asia.
Dr. Asher also was the strategic architect of the September 2005 designation of Banco Delta Asia in Macao (North Korea’s key global financial artery), the February 2011 designation of the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB), and the April 2013 designations of the Rmeiti and Halawi Exchange Houses—all under Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act. The LCB network was Hezbollah and Iran’s main gateway to the global dollarized trade and financial system and both suffered severe consequences upon imposition of the 311 actions. Dr. Asher has a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University and was a College Scholar at Cornell University as an undergraduate. He is fluent in Japanese. He has over two decades of experience working in the international financial community, including advising global hedge funds on Japan and Asia strategy. He is co-founder of Sayari Labs, a financial intelligence and commercial data provider, and a strategic advisor and limited partner at OMX Ventures.
Claire Chu
Counselor
Claire Chu is a senior China analyst at Janes, an open-source defense and geopolitical intelligence firm. Her research work focuses on the national security implications of China’s global economic activity, including foreign direct investment and global financial flows.
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Claire Chu is a senior China analyst at Janes, an open-source defense and geopolitical intelligence firm. Her research work focuses on the national security implications of China’s global economic activity, including foreign direct investment and global financial flows. In particular, she is interested in how the Chinese government leverages its markets and private sector to achieve strategic policy objectives.
Claire recently joined Janes through the acquisition of RWR Advisory Group, where she was the lead analyst in the China practice. She launched the Belt and Road Monitor in 2017, which provides a comprehensive biweekly overview of China’s overseas trade and investment activities and policy developments. Claire was a member of the 2022 class of National Security Fellows at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and previously held research roles at think tanks including the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. She has testified before Congress about Chinese economic and financial statecraft, and her commentary has been featured in major media outlets in the United States, Europe, and Asia..
Andrew Gabel
Non-Resident Fellow
Andrew Gabel is a Non-Resident Fellow at the China Economic and Strategy Initiative.
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Andrew Gabel is a recent graduate from Duke University School of Law. Prior to entering law school, he served as a special advisor to Sen. Tom Cotton (R.–AR). In this capacity, he provided policy analysis on numerous national security issues relating to China, the U.S. industrial base, U.S. advanced technology strategy, and U.S.-Sino economic integration. Before joining Sen. Cotton’s office, he worked as a research analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in support of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power. He started his career at the Bechtel Corporation, where he worked in the firm’s global treasury and corporate finance group. Andrew graduated magna cum laude from Kenyon College, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science.
Josh Young
Executive Director
Josh Young is Executive Director of China Economic and Strategy Initiative. Prior to joining CESI, Josh was a Senior Associate at The Asia Group, where he helped the firm’s defense and aerospace clients.
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Josh is the Executive Director of the China Economic & Strategy Initiative (CESI), a Washington D.C.-based non-profit think tank that is committed to developing policies that ensure the United States can not only compete, but win, a global competition with China. In this role, Josh is responsible for developing and driving CESI’s strategic priorities and managing a team of experts and research personnel. Josh also leads the organization’s strategic engagement with U.S. policymakers in the executive and legislative branches, foreign government officials, and the business community.
Prior to joining CESI, Josh was a Senior Associate at The Asia Group (TAG), a D.C.-based consulting firm where he focused on the firm’s defense portfolio. In this role, Josh helped the firm’s Fortune 500 clients navigate the geopolitical environment of the Indo-Pacific region to advance their business development goals.
In addition to the private sector, Josh has served in the U.S. government at the Department of Defense (DoD) and House of Representatives on Capitol Hill. At the DoD, Josh served in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs. In this capacity, Josh drove initiatives that deepened the U.S. defense relationships with its regional network of allies and partners and led the DoD’s 2020 China messaging campaign. While at the DoD, Josh also served as a Country Director for Japan in the Indo-Pacific Security Affairs office. In this role, Josh managed numerous faces of the U.S.-Japan Alliance to include foreign military sales, ballistic missile defense, U.S. force posture, plans, bilateral initiatives in cyber and space, and special efforts to advance the Alliance’s combined ability to meet the region’s most pressing threats.
While on Capitol Hill, Josh served on the Foreign Affairs Committee where he worked for former Chairman Ed Royce and Asia-Pacific Subcommittee Chairman, Ted Yoho. He covered various aspects of the Asia-Pacific portfolio and pioneered new foreign policy initiatives to counter foreign cyber threats against the United States.
Josh is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he received both a Master’s in Public & International Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.
Matthew Phelan
Policy Analyst
Matthew Phelan is a Policy Analyst at the China Economic and Strategy Initiative.
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Matthew Phelan is a Policy Analyst at the China Economic and Strategy Initiative. He is a recent graduate at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he obtained his Master’s in International Relations with a focus on East Asian Studies. While at SAIS, Matthew wrote for the SAIS Korea Studies Working Paper Series on dependency risks in the South Korean semiconductor industry. Prior to joining CESI, he worked on the Hill for former Congressman Peter King (R-NY). Matthew is a current Presidential Management Fellowship Finalist.