Scott Kennedy Joins CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies

WASHINGTON, January 26, 2015—CSIS is pleased to announce that Scott Kennedy has joined the Center as deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies and director of the newly formed Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy.

“We are delighted to have Scott join the Freeman Chair at CSIS,” said John J. Hamre, president, CEO, and Pritzker Chair at CSIS. “China’s economic rise impacts not just Asia, but the wider world also. Scott’s expertise will help us better understand China’s goals and lead U.S. and Chinese policymakers toward greater cooperation.”

The Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy will focus on four critical areas: (1) trends among state-owned enterprises, private firms, foreign-invested companies, and their relationship with each other and the Chinese state; (2) the trajectory of China’s economic reforms and the changing nature of industrial policy; (3) participation by Chinese industry and officials in international economic regimes; and (4) the challenges and opportunities multinationals face in doing business with China.

"We are very excited to have Scott joining us in the Freeman Chair,” said Christopher K. Johnson, Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS. “He brings a wealth of unique insight and expertise to CSIS and moves us still closer to our goal of developing the best full-scope China team in Washington."

Dr. Kennedy spent 14 years as a professor at Indiana University (IU). From 2007 to 2014, he was director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business, and he was founding academic director of IU’s China Office. From 1993 to 1997, he worked at the Brookings Institution. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the George Washington University and his M.A. in China studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Kennedy’s writings have appeared in a wide array of policy, popular, and academic venues. He is author of The Business of Lobbying in China (Harvard University Press, 2005) and editor of three books, including Beyond the Middle Kingdom: Comparative Perspectives on China’s Capitalist Transformation (Stanford University Press, 2011) and The Dragon’s Learning Curve: Global Governance and China (Routledge, forthcoming).