Experts

Evan A. Feigenbaum

Fast Facts

  • Vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Former deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia (2007–2009)
  • Former deputy assistant secretary of state for Central Asia (2006–2007)
  • Expertise on China, South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, nuclear nonproliferation

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • Asia
  • Trade

Evan A. Feigenbaum, practitioner senior fellow, is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees Carnegie's research in Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia. Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, Feigenbaum’s career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three major regions of Asia.

From 2001 to 2009, he served at the U.S. State Department as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia (2007–2009), deputy assistant secretary of state for Central Asia (2006–2007), member of the policy planning staff with principal responsibility for East Asia and the Pacific (2001–2006), and an adviser on China to Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, with whom he worked closely in the development of the U.S.-China senior dialogue.

Following government service, Feigenbaum worked in the private and nonprofit sectors: He was vice chairman of the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago and the co-founder of MacroPolo, its digital venture on the Chinese economy; head of the Asia practice at the markets consultancy Eurasia Group, a global political risk consulting firm; and senior fellow for East, Central, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. Before government service, he worked at Harvard University (1997–2001) as lecturer on government in the faculty of arts and sciences and as executive director of the Asia-Pacific Security Initiative and program chair of the Chinese Security Studies Program in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He taught at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (1994–1995) as lecturer of national security affairs and was a consultant on China to the RAND Corporation (1993–1994).

He is the author of three books and monographs, including The United States in the New Asia (CFR, 2009, co-author) and China’s Techno-Warriors: National Security and Strategic Competition from the Nuclear to the Information Age (Stanford University Press, 2003), which was selected by Foreign Affairs as a best book of 2003 on the Asia-Pacific, as well as numerous articles and essays.

Evan A. Feigenbaum News Feed

Before the coronavirus hit, Taiwan’s 2019 headline growth figures were nothing short of stellar. Its economy grew at an impressive 3.31 percent during the fourth quarter of 2019, propelling President Tsai Ing-Wen into her second term on a high note and giving Taiwan businesses a boost. But that success owed much to one fact: bluntly stated, Taiwan was having a terrific U.S.-China trade war.
Evan Feigenbaum The National Interest
In February 1972, then president Richard M. Nixon landed in Beijing to formalize the establishment of official contact between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. That journey to Beijing had been a long one for Nixon—a man who began his career as a noted anti-Communist and was vice president to Dwight D. Eisenhower, the last U.S. president to make a state visit to Taiwan, which the United States then recognized as the seat of the legitimate government of all China.
Evan Feigenbaum Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Because it imports nearly all of the fuel that powers its economy, Taiwan is unusually vulnerable to energy market risks. Volatility has grown in the world’s major oil-producing regions, especially the Middle East, where the specter of conflict between the United States and Iran looms ever larger. What is more, over the long term, countries dependent on oil export revenue will need to successfully adapt to a world characterized by declining oil demand. They will likely struggle to diversify their economies and ensure employment, yielding another significant source of instability. Meanwhile, commodity markets, from crude oil to natural gas, have been buffeted by geopolitical volatility, political and investment risks, and technological disruption.
Evan Feigenbaum Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Srinath Raghavan is joined by Evan Feigenbaum to discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the geopolitical and economic competition between the US and China and their prospects for cooperation.
Evan Feigenbaum Interpreting India
In this new video series, Carnegie’s Evan Feigenbaum talks in detail to six senior American decisionmakers who led the coordination with Beijing on some of the toughest—and indeed, some of the scariest—transnational problems the world has faced over the last two decades.
Evan Feigenbaum Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The coronavirus outbreak has highlighted the many issues in the U.S.–China relationship. Why can’t Washington and Beijing better coordinate a response to the pandemic, replicating their cooperative efforts during the 2008 financial crisis and 2014 Ebola outbreak? Paul Haenle spoke with Evan Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on the dynamics preventing bilateral cooperation and the implications for a post-coronavirus world.
Evan Feigenbaum China in the World Podcast