Editor-in-Chief
Niklas Swanstrom is the Director of the Institute for Security and Development Policy and the Program Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program. His specialization is in conflict management, security issues, and negotiations in Central and Northeast Asia, as well as Chinese foreign policy. He holds a Ph.D. and a Licenciate degree from Uppsala University, a MALD degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and degrees from Beijing University and Uppsala University. He can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Managing Editor
Sebastien Peyrouse, is a Senior Research Fellow with the Central Asia and Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program. Dr. Peyrouse is the author or co-author of five books and the editor of two volumes on Central Asia. His articles have appeared in numerous academic journals. His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia, Islam and religious minorities, and Central Asia's geopolitical positioning toward China, Russia and South Asia. He can be contacted at
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Associate Managing Editor
Christopher Len is Research Fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy. He is interested in security and development issues in Asia, the growing political and economic linkages between the various Asian sub-regions, and energy diplomacy in Asia. He holds degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Peace and Conflict Research Department at Uppsala University, Sweden. He can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
News-Digest Editor
Dan Wu is the News-brief Editor of the China and Eurasia Forum. She is currently studying for a Master in International and European Relations degree at Linköping University, Sweden.
Senior Advisors
Daniel L. Burghart is a Professor of National Security Studies at the National Defense University and is a specialist in Russian and Central European Affairs. Colonel Burghart entered the Army in 1973 as a distinguished military graduate of the University of Illinois ROTC program, and has served in a variety of Field Artillery and Foreign Area Officer positions. Prior coming to the National Defense University, Colonel Burghart was Senior National Security Policy Advisor at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Defense and Army Attaché to the country of Kazakhstan, and a Mission Commander at the On Site Inspection Agency, where he led arms control inspections to the republics of the Former Soviet Union. Other assignments include: Senior Russian Military Analyst and Eurasian Branch Chief on the Army Staff, Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the Military Academy at West Point, and Director of Area Studies at the U.S. Army Russian Institute. In addition to a B.A. in Political Science from Illinois, Colonel Burghart has a dual Masters in Political Science and Russian Area Studies from University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Russian and International Studies from the University of Surrey. Along with several articles in defense and civilian journals, he is the author of the book Red Microchip: Technology Transfer, Export Control and Economic Restructuring in the Soviet Union. Colonel Burghart is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Air Command and Staff College, the U.S. Army Russian Institute, and the Defense Attaché School.
Malia K. Du Mont is an Asian Security Analyst at the CNA Corporation, where she pursues research on Chinese foreign policy and Chinese-Central Asian relations. She holds an M.P.P. in International Security and Political Economy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. A graduate of the Hopkins-Nanjing program, she received her B.A. in Chinese from Bard College. Among her various experiences in the China field, Ms. Du Mont has been an administrator of Chinese Executive Programs at Harvard University, has interned in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and at the American Chamber of Commerce in Guangzhou, worked at a Chinese television station in Jiangsu, and taught English at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou.
David M. Finkelstein is the Director of Project Asia, the CNA Corporation's Center for Asian Security Studies in Alexandria, Virginia. A long-time student of Chinese and Asian security affairs, he received his Ph.D. in Chinese history from Princeton University and studied Mandarin at Nankai University in Tianjin. He is widely published on Asian security issues and U.S. relations in Asia. A retired U.S. Army Officer, Finkelstein is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Army War College. While on active duty he held various China and Asia-related positions in the Pentagon, served in Panmumjom, Korea, and was assigned to the faculty of the History Department at West Point where he taught courses on the history of China and Chinese military history.
Bates Gill is the Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to this, he held the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. from 2002 to 2007. He also previously served as a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and inaugural Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington D.C. as well as East Asia-related positions at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute, Monterey, California and at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Chinese and American Studies, Nanjing, China. A specialist in East Asian foreign policy and politics, Dr. Gill conducts research focusing primarily on Northeast Asian political and security issues, especially with regard to China.
James A. Millward has a B.A. from Harvard University, 1982; a M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1985; and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, 1993. Dr. Millward is Associate Professor of Intersocietal History at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, where he teaches Asian and World history. His research focuses on the modern history of Chinese frontiers with Inner and Central Asia, including Mongolia, Tibet and especially Xinjiang. He has lived and traveled extensively in China and throughout the Xinjiang region. His publications include Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864 (1998) and "Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Xinjiang" (Inner Asia, 2 [2000]). In 2000-2001, Dr. Millward held a George Washington University / Woodrow Wilson Center Asia Policy Fellowship. He is now completing a general survey of Xinjiang history, to be entitled Chinese Turkestan: A history of Xinjiang.
Nicklas Norling is a Ph.D. Candidate at Johns Hopkins University and a Research Fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. degree in Political Science from Stockholm University. His articles have appeared in Asian Survey, Central Asian Survey and other journals and his comments on regional events in Asia frequently appear in both national broadcasts and the international print media. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Matthew Oresman Prior to founding the China-Eurasia Forum, Mr. Oresman was a researcher with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and coordinator for the Freeman Chair's project on China's Emergence in Central Asia. As such, he was the principal author of China's New Journey to the West: Report on China's Emergence in Central Asia and Implications for U.S. Interests (2003). Mr. Oresman has published widely on China-Central Asia relations and has given presentations at Chinese and American think tanks and government departments on this topic. He received a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. In 2003-2004 he studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing and at Fudan University in Shanghai in 2000. In addition, Mr. Oresman is currently a JD candidate at Georgetown University Law Center.
Pan Guang is the Director of and Professor at the Shanghai Center for International Studies and Institute of Eurasian Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Director of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Studies Center in Shanghai, Dean of the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai (CJSS) and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Society of Middle East Studies. He is also the Walter and Seena Fair Professor for Jewish and Israeli Studies. Dr. Pan is an International Council Member of the Asia Society and an Advisory Board Member of Asia Europe Journal in Singapore. In 1993 he was awarded the James Friend Annual Memorial Award for Sino-Jewish Studies; in 1996, the Special Award for Canadian Studies; and in 2004, the 300 Medal for Contribution to China-Russia Relations, awarded by President Putin. He has traveled and lectured widely in North America, East Asia, Russia, Europe, Middle East and Australia. His published books and articles include: The Jews in China; From Silk Road to ASEM: 2000 years of Asia-Europe Relations; China--Central Asia--Russia Relations; SCO and China's Role in the War on Terrorism; Contemporary International Crises; and China's Success in the Middle East.
S. Frederick Starr is the Chairman of The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. Dr. Starr is research professor at the Foreign Policy Institute of SAIS, and the pro-tem Rector of the University of Central Asia. He is a leading specialist on the society and politics of Central Asia, including Afghanistan, as well as Russian politics and foreign policy, U.S. policy in Eurasia, and the regional politics of oil.
Farkhad Tolipov is Assistant to Political Officer at the OSCE Center in Tashkent and Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, also in Tashkent. He has worked as a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan, as a Senior Consultant to The Office of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and has also served as Director of the Tashkent Centre of Political Science. He received his Ph.D. from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, and has been a fellow at Harvard University, the NATO Defense College, and the Social Science Research Council in Toronto. He is widely published on the subject of Central Asian geopolitics and security.
Dmitri V. Trenin is a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Deputy Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. Before joining Carnegie in 1994 he served in the Soviet and Russian army. Col. Trenin's postings included Iraq (with the military assistance group, 1975-76), Germany (liaison with the Western powers in Berlin, 1978-83), and Switzerland (INF and START talks, 1985-91). For several years, Trenin taught area studies at the Defense University in Moscow. He was also a Senior Fellow at NATO Defense College (1993) and, upon retirement from the military, a visiting professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1993-1994). At Carnegie, Dr. Trenin co-chairs the Foreign and Security Policy Program. He is the author of several books, including Russia's Restless Frontier (co-authored, 2003), The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization (two printings, 2002 and 2001), A Strategy for Stable Peace. Toward a Euroatlantic Security Community (co-authored, 2002), Russia's China Problem (1998), Baltic Chance: The Baltic States, Russia and the West in the Emerging Greater Europe (1997). Among the books Trenin edited are Ambivalent Neighbors: The NATO and EU Enlargement and the Price of Membership (2003); Russia and the Main Security Institutions in Europe: Entering the 21st Century (2000); Kosovo: International Aspects (1999); Commonwealth and Security in Eurasia (1998). Dr. Trenin is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and of the Russian International Studies Association. A frequent commentator for the world media, he serves on the editorial boards of International Politics, Pro et Contra, and Baltic Course.
Zhao Huasheng is the Director of the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. He specializes in Russian foreign policy and security, Sino-Russian relations, Sino-Central Asian relations, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Prof. Zhao has twice been a visiting scholar at the Moscow Institute of International Relations, and has written extensively on Russian foreign policy. Recent publications include "China and America in Russia's Foreign Policy" in Contemporary International Relations, and "The Situation in Central Asia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization" in East Europe and Central Asia Studies. His undergraduate degree is from the Shanghai University of International Studies, and he completed his graduate studies at Nanjing University.
Review Committee
Jeremy Allouche, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, UK
Luca Anceschi, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Eric Brown, Hudson Institute, Washington D.C., USA
Nicolas De Pedro, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
Mohammed-Reza Djalili, Institut Universitaire des hautes études internationales, Genève, Switzerland
Thierry Kellner, Brussels University, Brussels, Belgium
Simbal Khan, Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, Pakistan
Thrassy Marketos, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greece
Marlène Laruelle, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, Washington/Stockholm, USA/Sweden
Li Lifan, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai, China
Richard Pomfret, University of Adelaide, Australia
Anita Sengupta, Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, India
Meena Singh Roy, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, India
Gael Raballand, World Bank, Washington D.C., USA
Uyama Tomohiko, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
