Tuesday, November 10, 2015 | 5:30 PM EST - 7:00 PM EST
Jones Day |, New York, NY
China’s growing economic and political influence has raised concerns among some in the United States that China’s regained status as a major power represents a strategic threat to U.S. leadership in Asia and beyond. In The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power, Thomas Christensen seeks to counter this zero-sum narrative by offering a new paradigm in which the real challenge for the United States lies in dissuading China from regional aggression while encouraging the country to contribute to the international order. Thomas Christensen discussed his book at a National Committee event on November 10, 2015 in New York City.
Thomas J. Christensen
Thomas J. Christensen is William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace and War and Director of the China and the World Program at Princeton University. At Princeton he is also faculty director of the Masters of Public Policy Program and the Truman Scholars Program. From 2006-2008 he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs with responsibility for relations with China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. His research and teaching focus on China’s foreign relations, the international relations of East Asia, and international security.
His most recent book, The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power (W.W. Norton, 2015), was an editors’ choice at the New York Times Book Review and selected as “Book of the Week” on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Before arriving at Princeton in 2003, Professor Christensen taught at Cornell University and MIT. He received his B.A. with honors in History from Haverford College, M.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. He has served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and as co-editor of the International History and Politics series at Princeton University Press. He is currently the Chair of the Editorial Board of the Nancy B. Tucker and Warren I. Cohen Book Series on the United States in Asia at Columbia University Press. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Board for the Schwarzman Scholars Program.
Professor Christensen is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Non-Resident Senior Scholar at the Brookings Institution. In 2002 he was presented with a Distinguished Public Service Award by the United States Department of State.