Southeast Asia
Why ASEAN should not be a US-China battleground
Washington, D.C. – The Brookings Institution announced today that Jonathan A. Czin will serve as the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center.
“We are excited to welcome Jon to Brookings,” said Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Suzanne Maloney. “The depth and breadth of his expertise and insight into Chinese politics make him an important addition to our China program.”
Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Foreign Policy program, also welcomed Czin’s appointment. “Jon’s decades of public service at the highest echelons of the U.S. intelligence community will be a critical asset to our scholarship on China. We are delighted that he is adding his intellectual firepower to our efforts at Brookings to analyze Chinese decision-making and its implications for American interests.”
Until recently, Czin was a member of the Senior Analytic Service at Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where he was one of the intelligence community’s top China experts. He led the intelligence community’s analysis of Chinese politics and policymaking, playing a central role in assessing and briefing senior policymakers on Chinese President Xi Jinping, his rise to power, and decision-making on an array of key issues and crises.
From 2021 to 2023, Czin was director for China at the National Security Council, where he advised on, staffed, and coordinated White House and inter-agency diplomacy with China, including all of U.S. President Joe Biden’s interactions with Xi. He also served as advisor for Asia-Pacific Security Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and overseas at a CIA field station in Southeast Asia.
Czin holds a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University, graduated magna cum laude from Haverford College, and studied at Oxford University.
About the John L. Thornton China Center:
The John L. Thornton China Center develops timely, independent analyses and policy recommendations to address long-standing challenges related to U.S.-China relations and China’s internal development.
About Brookings
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.
