Speaker biographies
Dan Blumenthal joined AEI in November 2004 as a resident fellow in Asian studies. Previously, he was senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for international security affairs during the first George W. Bush administration. In that capacity, he led a team that formulated and implemented defense policies and programs toward, and for, these portfolio countries. Before his service at the Department of Defense, Mr. Blumenthal practiced law in New York and was a research assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Richard Bush is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is also the director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and the Michael H. Armacost Chair. His areas of expertise include East Asia, Taiwan, and U.S.-China relations. Prior to working at the Brookings Institution, Dr. Bush was chairman of the board and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan. He has also served as a national intelligence officer for East Asia, on the National Intelligence Council, director for minority liaison with the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, director for committee liaison with the U.S. House Committee of Foreign Affairs, and deputy program director, for the China Council of The Asia Society.
T.J. Cheng is the co-chair of the East Asian Studies Program at the College of William and Mary. He has previously taught at the University of California, San Diego, and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Tsukuba, Japan and an associate visiting professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters, co-authored, with Stephen Haggard, the book Newly Industrializing East Asia in Transition (University of California Intl., 1987) and co-edited various books including Political Change in Taiwan (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991). Dr. Cheng was editor-in-chief of the American Asian Review, a major refereed quarterly on Asian affairs. He currently edits the Taiwan Journal of Democracy and holds the Class of 1935 Chair Professorship in the Government Department of the College.
Donald Horowitz is a James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science at the Duke University Law School. A recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, Dr. Horowitz has published several books on the courts, social policy, and ethnic conflict. He has served as a fellow of the National Humanities Center, a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, a visiting scholar at the University of Canterbury Law School in New Zealand, and a STICERD Distinguished Visitor at the London School of Economics. His recommendations formed the basis of the electoral proposals adopted in 1996 by the Fiji Constitution Review Commission. He is currently working on a book on constitutional design for divided societies. Dr. Horowitz also serves as Vice-President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy.
Wen-cheng Lin is president of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and was a member of Taiwan’s National Security Council during the first term of Chen Shui-ban's presidency. He is also currently a professor and the director of the Institute of Mainland China Studies at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan. He has also contributed chapters to the following books Assesing the Lee Teng-hui Legacy in Taiwan’s Politics: Democratic Consolidation and External Relations (Sharpe, 2002), China’s Multilateral Diplomacy (University of Victoria, 2006), Political Changes in the Czech Republic and Taiwan: Comparison (Charles University, 2002), and The Chinese PLA’s Perception of an Invasion of Taiwan (New York University, 1996). He has also written numerous articles on Taiwan and cross-strait relations.
Gary J. Schmitt is a resident scholar at AEI, where he is director of strategic studies. Prior to coming to AEI, he helped found and served as executive director of the Project for the New American Century, a Washington-based foreign and defense policy think tank. Previously, he was a member of the professional staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and served as the committee’s minority staff director. He was appointed by President Reagan to the post of executive director of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the White House. Dr. Schmitt is the co-editor, with Thomas Donnelly, of Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources (AEI Press, 2007). He has written books and articles in a number of areas, including the American founding, the U.S. presidency, intelligence and national security affairs.
Therese Shaheen is an adjunct fellow at AEI and co-founder, chairman and CEO of the USAsia Group of companies. Prior to returning to the USAsia Group in May 2004, Ms. Shaheen served as chairman of the Board and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) by appointment of President George W. Bush. Ms. Shaheen has also served as project director for Tokyo-based Refugees International and as chairman of the International Committee of the National Women’s Economic Alliance. She has been a member of the National Advisory Board of the Independent Women’s Forum and has served as an overseas election monitor for the International Republican Institute. Ms. Shaheen’s articles on Asian affairs, U.S. politics and other issues have appeared in numerous newspapers and journals.
John Tkacik is a senior research fellow in Asian Studies at The Heritage Foundation with a research focus on U.S. policies toward China (including Hong Kong and Macao), Taiwan and Mongolia. Mr. Tkacik has served as a diplomat overseas with the U.S. Foreign Service in Taiwan, Iceland, China and the former British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, as well as in the Department of State in Washington, D.C., where he was chief of China analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). Mr. Tkacik has also worked in Hong Kong as vice president for external relations for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco International. Mr. Tkacik is the editor and main contributor to Rethinking One China (The Heritage Foundation, 2004).
Jiunn-Rong Yeh is a full time professor at the College of Law at the National Taiwan University. His research interests include environmental law and policy, constitutional law, and constitutional change. Mr. Yeh teaches classes in environmental law, law and economics, constitutional law, American administrative law, torts, and American legal studies. Mr. Yeh is also a member of the President's Commission on Government Reorganization, Republic of China.
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