Experts

Harry Harding

Faculty Senior Fellow

Fast Facts

  • Specialist on Asia and U.S.-Asian relations
  • UVA University Professor Emeritus
  • UVA professor of public policy emeritus
  • Founding dean of UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
  • Expertise on Asia, China, U.S.-China relations, Cultural Revolution

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • World Happenings
  • Asia
  • Economic Issues

Harry Harding, faculty senior fellow, is a specialist on Asia and U.S.-Asian relations. His major publications include Organizing China: The Problem of Bureaucracy, 1949-1966China’s Second Revolution: Reform after MaoA Fragile Relationship: The United States and China since 1972; and the chapter on the Cultural Revolution in the Cambridge History of China. His edited volumes include China’s Foreign Relations in the 1980s; Sino-American Relations, 1945-1955: A Joint Reassessment of a Critical Decade (co-edited with Yuan Ming); and The India-China Relationship: What the United States Needs to Know (co-edited with Francine R. Frankel).

A University Professor Emeritus and professor of public policy emeritus at the University of Virginia, Harding is also adjunct chair professor in the College of Social Science at National Chengchi University in Taipei, where he holds a Yushan Scholarship, the highest honor awarded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education. He has recently held visiting appointments at the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Harding served as the founding dean of UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy between 2009 and 2014. Before joining the Batten School, he held faculty appointments at Swarthmore College and Stanford University and was a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. From 1995 to 2005, he was dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, and from 2005 to 2007 was director of research and analysis at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and advisory firm based in New York. He has served on the boards of several educational and nonprofit institutions, as well as on the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Science and Technology and the U.S. Defense Policy Board. A graduate of Princeton in public and international affairs, he holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University.

Harry Harding News Feed

In this live webinar discussion convened by UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, experts in history, political science, economics, law, and diplomacy from across the University of Virginia join veteran government practitioners to discuss the array of world crises now challenging American policymakers.
Aynne Kokas, Eric Edelman, Harry Harding, John Owen, Mara Rudman, Phil Potter, Spencer Bakich, Stephen Mull, Syaru Shirley Lin, William Antholis Miller Center Presents
William B. Taylor Jr., former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, joins a panel of Miller Center and UVA experts on war and foreign policy to analyze Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As Taylor wrote recently: “Atrocities and mass civilian casualties, in a Russian assault that President Biden and others have labeled an act of genocide, only heighten the question for democracies of how to respond. Accountability will be vital. But an immediate imperative is to stop this aggression by defeating Putin and supporting Ukrainians’ battle to preserve their own freedom. That battle is crucial to the protection of international rule of law—and, given Putin’s implacability, to any hope for peace.”
Harry Harding Miller Center Presents
A panel of professors and researchers discussed the pandemic’s impact on public health policy Wednesday, the first undertaking of the Miller Center’s Health Care Policy Initiative. The event included discussion about the legacy of COVID-19 in the U.S., how the Biden administration is dealing with the ongoing pandemic, the relationship between pandemics and foreign policy and how individuals can deal with uncertain public health measures as mask mandates are lifted around the country.
Guian McKee The Cavalier Daily
Miller Center scholars join Director William Antholis to discuss the destabilizing effects of the invasion.
Harry Harding Miller Center Russia-Ukraine blog
Harry Harding, political science professor at University of Virginia shares the view that Taiwan will be the key issue going forward for the bilateral relationship, but for a different reason. "China's policy toward Taiwan has not been effective," he said. "It has not been able to appeal to Taiwanese people, who increasingly value their democracy, see that they have their own identity, and above all, reject the idea that they should be reunified with China under the same one country, two systems formula as applied to Hong Kong."
Harry Harding Nikkei Asian Review
The University’s Miller Center of Public Affairs hosted a webinar Monday night about the future of relations between the U.S. and China, arguing that the Trump administration was responsible for worsening tensions between the two countries. The webinar consisted of a panel of eight scholars and politicians. Five panelists from the Miller Center and Center for Politics at the University were joined by three panelists from the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, a partner institution of the University.
Harry Harding The Cavalier Daily