
Dennis Wilder
Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service
Dennis Wilder is a senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, where he previously served as the managing director. Wilder holds a B.A. from Kalamazoo College and an M.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University.
His accomplishments include:
- Served as National Security Council's (NSC) director for China (2004-2005) and then as the NSC special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asian affairs from 2005 to 2009, which included a series of presidential trips to Asia, notably the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
- Served from 2009 to 2015 as senior editor of the President’s Daily Brief, the worldwide intelligence update produced under auspices of the director of national intelligence.
- Served from 2015 to 2016 as the CIA’s deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific.
- Spent the 1975-1976 academic year at New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong studying Mandarin Chinese under the auspices of Yale-in-China.
- Author of "We Need More Luddens" and "Managed Competition: Finding Answers in U.S.-China Diplomatic History."
- Contributing author of Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama, which details the Bush administration’s national security and foreign policy as described at the time in then-classified Transition Memoranda.
September 17, 2023
News: In Risky Hunt for Secrets, U.S. and China Expand Global Spy Operations
September 15, 2023
News: China’s Defense Minister Under Investigation for Corruption
September 14, 2023
News: Chinese Defence Minister Under Ivestigation by Beijing, U.S. Believes
August 17, 2023
News: Four Things to Watch from Biden’s Big Camp David Summit
August 9, 2023
News: Podcast: "What Comes Next for U.S.-China Relations?"
July 25, 2023
News: China Replaces Missing Foreign Minister Qin Gang
April 20, 2023
News: What The Pentagon Leaks Tell Us About China And Russia
April 10, 2023
News: China Wraps Up Military Exercises Around Taiwan
January 31, 2023
News: Expectations Low for Blinken's China Trip to Reset Relations
August 21, 2019
News: Hong Kong Protests Will Get Rougher: Former CIA Official
March 31, 2019
News: U.S., North Korean Officials Cross Paths in Beijing
March 8, 2019
News: Dennis Wilder on the U.S.-China Relationship
March 4, 2019
News: China and Global 5G: Getting the Questions Right
February 22, 2019
News: The Point: Is Space an Emerging Battleground?
January 30, 2019
News: Road Map to Denuclearization Key to Second Trump-Kim Summit
January 21, 2019
News: China's Xi Warns Party of 'Serious Dangers' as Risks Mount
December 2, 2018
News: Did the U.S. Get China Wrong? Conference on U.S.-China Policy
The Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues and the Asian Studies Program convened leading experts and practitioners on U.S.-China policy for a day-long closed-door conference.

April 22, 2019
U.S.-China Diplomacy: 40 Years of What's Worked and What Hasn't Event
U.S.-China relations have entered perhaps their most trying period since normalization in 1979. As both countries rethink the trajectory of their relationship, the last 40 years of diplomacy are invaluable to informing new ideas on a way forward. On…

April 4, 2019
Research Workshop on Managing Competition and the Future of U.S.-China Relations Event
U.S.-China relations are at a critical juncture as increasing global competition and high trade tensions leave many wondering whether a new equilibrium is possible in this great power relationship, or whether the rivalry between the two greatest…

February 11, 2019
"Reeducation" in Xinjiang Event
In this seminar Georgetown history professor Dr. James A. Millward explored current developments related to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and its Uighur minority group, drawing on his extensively researched article in the New York Review of…

October 9, 2018
2018 CHINA Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections Event
On October 9, 2018, 95+ communities across the United States joined in a national conversation on China. The two-part event, sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Georgetown Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global…

May 21, 2018
The U.S.-China Agricultural Trade Forum Event
On May 21, 2018, prominent business leaders, academics, and government officials from the United States and China gathered at the Georgetown McDonough School of Business for the U.S.-China Agricultural Trade Forum. The event was sponsored by the…

2018-2019 Student Fellows Visit Beijing in Tumultuous Times Feature
With tensions high and aggressive rhetoric coming from both sides, the third cohort of the U.S.-China Student Fellows Program gathered in Beijing from May 30 to June 2, 2019. The 12 students, six Chinese and six Americans, led by Dennis Wilder, the…

Georgetown Graduate Students Explore China's Future Feature
The visits to Beijing, Guiyang, and Shenzhen taught the students about China’s past as well as its future through visits to cutting edge facilities like China’s big data center in Guiyang and Huawei Corporation in Shenzhen, the Chinese company at the…

Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues Georgetown Unit
The Georgetown Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues is a university platform for research, teaching, and high-level dialogue among American and Chinese leaders from the public sector, business, and the academy that addresses common…

U.S.-China Diplomacy: 40 Years of What's Worked and What Hasn't Video
U.S.-China relations have entered perhaps their most trying period since normalization in 1979. As both countries rethink the trajectory of their relationship, the last 40 years of diplomacy are invaluable to informing new ideas on a way forward. On…

Uncharted Territory: Exploring the Future of U.S.-China Relations with China's America Hands Video
At this event a discussion was held between Georgetown faculty and Chinese academics with deep expertise on the history of U.S.-China relations. The dialogue explored the trajectory of the bilateral relationship at this critical juncture in the…
