The Eleventh Annual Nancy Bernkopf Tucker Memorial Lecture on US-East Asia Relations

Dr. Susan Shirk

Susan Shirk is one of the most influential experts working on U.S.-China relations and Chinese politics in the U.S. She is a research professor and the founding chair of the 21st Century China Center, a unique academic research center and university-based policy center at the School of Global Policy and Strategy.

Shirk held the Ho Miu Lam Chair in China and Pacific Relations for many years and is director emeritus of the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). She is the author of many books, including most notably The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China, China: Fragile Superpower, and Overreach: How China Derailed its Peaceful Rise. Her latest book, “Overreach,” received the Lionel Gelber Prize as the best non-fiction book published in English language on international affairs and the Silver Medal of the Arthur Ross Book Award by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Besides her academic work, Shirk is also known for her extensive policy experience, especially in U.S.-China relations. From 1997-2000, Shirk served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. She is the founder of, and remains active in, the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), a Track II forum for discussions of security issues among defense and foreign ministry officials and academics from the United States, Japan, China, Russia and the Koreas.

Shirk co-chairs a task force of China experts that issued its third report “China’s New Direction: Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Policy” in Sept. 2021. She is also co-chair of the UC San Diego Forum on U.S.-China Relations, an ongoing high-level forum focused entirely on the U.S.-China relationship.

Previous Lectures

Is American Strategy in Asia Working? with Dr. Michael J. Green (2024)

Strait to the Point: Current Challenges for Taiwan and US-Taiwan Relations with Prof. Jacques deLisle (2023)

How, and Why, China-U.S. Relations have Worsened Since 2012? with Prof. Wang Jisi (2022)

Sino-American Relations and International Law - Lessons for Today with Jerome Cohen (2019)

Sustaining Taiwan through the 21st Century with Shelley Rigger (2018)

America First: Provincialism and Internationalism in U.S. Foreign Relations with Bruce Cummings (2017)

Present Pasts: The Politics of Memory in East Asia with Carol Gluck (2016)

The United States and China: Same Bed, Different Dreams, Shared Destiny with Thomas Fingar (2015)

Tough Calls: Difficult Assessments and Hard Choices in U.S. Policy Toward China with Harry Harding (2014)

Sino-American Relations: Amour or Les Miserables? with Ambassador Winston Lord (2013)