Scott Kennedy

Scott Kennedy is senior adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). A leading authority on Chinese economic policy and U.S.-China commercial relations, Kennedy has traveled to China for 36 years. His ongoing focuses include China’s innovation drive, Chinese industrial policy, U.S.-China relations and global economic governance. His articles have appeared in a wide array of publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy and China Quarterly. His major publications include “U.S.-China Scholarly Recoupling: Advancing Mutual Understanding in an Era of Intense Rivalry” (CSIS, 2024); “Breaking the Ice: The Role of Scholarly Exchange in Stabilizing U.S.-China Relations” (CSIS, 2023); and “China’s Uneven High-Tech Drive: Implications for the United States” (CSIS, 2020).

Kennedy hosts the China Field Notes podcast, featuring on-the-ground voices from China, and the Trustee Chair co-runs the Big Data China initiative, which introduces pathbreaking scholarly research to the policy community. From 2000 to 2014, Kennedy was a professor at Indiana University, where he established the Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business and was the founding academic director of the university’s China Office. Kennedy received a Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University, his M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and his B.A. from the University of Virginia.