Elizabeth Economy is the C. V. Starr senior fellow and director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. She is an acclaimed author and expert on Chinese domestic and foreign policy, writing on topics ranging from China's environmental challenges to its role in global governance.
Life
Economy received her BA with honors from Swarthmore College, her MA from Stanford University, and her PhD from the University of Michigan. In 2008, she received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Vermont Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children. Economy serves on the board of managers of Swarthmore College and the board of trustees of the Asia Foundation and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She has also served on the advisory council of Network 20/20 and the science advisory council of the Stockholm Environment Forum. Previously, she was a member of the World Economic Forum ’s Global Agenda Council on the United States from 2014 to 2016 and served as a member and then vice chair of WEF's Global Agenda Council on the Future of China from 2008 to 2014. Dr. Economy has also served on the board of the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development. She has taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies. Her most recent book, The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State, analyzes the contradictory nature of reform under President Xi Jinping. In January 2019, The Third Revolution was short-listed for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a prestigious literary award for the world's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues. She is also the author of By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World with Michael Levi, and The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future, which was named one of the top 50 sustainability books in 2008 by the University of Cambridge, won the 2005 International Convention on Asia Scholars Award for the best social sciences book published on Asia, and was listed as one of the top ten books of 2004 by the Globalist as well as one of the best business books of 2010 by Booz Allen Hamilton's strategy+business magazine. She has published articles in foreign policy and scholarly journals including Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, and Foreign Policy, and op-eds in the New York Times,Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, among others. Dr. Economy is a frequent guest on nationally broadcast television and radio programs, has testified before Congress on numerous occasions, and regularly consults for U.S. government agencies and companies. She writes about topics involving China on CFR's Asia program blog. In June 2018, Dr. Economy was named one of "The 10 Names That Matter on China Policy" by Politico Magazine.
Works
The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s FutureCornell University Press, 2004; 2nd edition, 2010.,
By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the WorldOxford University Press, 2014.,
The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State, Oxford University Press, 2018.,
