Elizabeth Economy

Elizabeth Economy is the Hargrove Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. From 2021–2023, Economy served as a senior foreign advisor (for China) in the Department of Commerce for the current administration. Economy was previously at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she served as the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies for over a decade.

Economy is an acclaimed author and expert on Chinese domestic and foreign policy. Her latest book, "The World According to China," explores China’s foreign policy ambitions and their impact on the international system. Her previous book, "The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State," was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a prestigious literary award for foreign affairs books. She is also the author of "By All Means Necessary: How China's Resource Quest is Changing the World," co-authored with Michael Levi, and the award-winning "The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future."

Economy has published articles in policy and scholarly journals -- including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Harvard Business Review -- and op-eds in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others. She 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. In June 2018, she was named one of the "10 Names That Matter on China Policy" by Politico Magazine.

Economy serves on the board of managers of Swarthmore College and is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group. She was also on the advisory council of Network 20/20 and the science advisory council of the Stockholm Environment Forum. She served as a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF)’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. Economy 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.

She received her BA with honors from Swarthmore College, her AM from Stanford University, and her PhD from the University of Michigan. In 2008, Economy received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Vermont Law School.