The Asia Foundation

Expertise: Governance and politics in China and Vietnam; legal reform; political economy; Southeast Asian affairs; international relations.

Jonathan R. Stromseth has been The Asia Foundation's country representative to China since 2006. Based in Beijing, Dr. Stromseth oversees a broad range of programs in China focusing on governance and legal reform, environmental protection, disaster management, and U.S.-China relations. He served as The Asia Foundation's country representative to Vietnam from 2000 to late 2005, establishing the Foundation's office in Hanoi and managing programs in the areas of economic governance, private sector development, legal reform, and foreign affairs. Prior to joining The Asia Foundation, he worked for the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cambodia and taught Southeast Asian politics at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Hong Kong Forum, and the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

Dr. Stromseth currently directs the Chinese Governance Assessment Project (C-GAP) — a research study examining changes in public participation, transparency, and accountability in China and assessing whether these changes correlate with key governance outcomes such as improved legal compliance, reduced corruption, and better public service delivery. His commentary on Chinese and Vietnamese affairs has appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg News, and Marketplace. Selected publications include Dialogue on U.S.-Vietnam Relations, Vol. 2, Global and Regional Influences (The Asia Foundation, 2004); Dialogue on U.S.-Vietnam Relations, Vol. 1, Domestic Dimensions (The Asia Foundation, 2003); and "Business Associations and Policy-Making in Vietnam," in Getting Organized in Vietnam: Moving in and around the Socialist State (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003).

Dr. Stromseth holds a doctorate in political science from Columbia University, where his studies focused on comparative politics and international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, he studied Mandarin Chinese at Middlebury College and the Beijing Language Institute, Vietnamese language and history at Cornell University, and conducted research on Southeast Asian politics at the National University of Singapore with the support of a Fulbright Scholarship. He focused on Asian Studies at St. Olaf College, concentrating in modern Chinese history. His academic awards include a President's Fellowship from Columbia and research fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and the Institute for the Study of World Politics.

Education: B.A., St. Olaf College (Phi Beta Kappa); M.I.A., Certificate of the East Asian Institute, M.Phil. and Ph.D., Columbia University.