For more than two decades, David M. Lampton served as a John Hopkins Hyman Professor and the Director of China Studies. He was also an Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. Lampton is a former Chairman of The Asia Foundation and President of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Stanford University and has an honorary doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Far Eastern Studies. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve, both an enlisted soldier and commissioned officer. his recent book Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia, which explores “what China’s ambitious railway initiative can teach us about global influence”. In January 2024, Rowman & Littlefield will publish his personal account of U.S.-China relations over the last sixty years.