Elizabeth Economy '84

Elizabeth Economy ‘84 is the Hargrove Senior Fellow, Hoover Institute, Stanford University. Liz was the Senior Fellow for China, Council on Foreign Relations from 2021-2023. She is on the Board of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and the National Endowment for Democracy. 

An award-winning author and expert scholar on Chinese domestic and foreign policy, she has published numerous articles and written several books, including the highly-acclaimed The River Runs Black: the Environmental Challenge to China’s Future (2010). She is also the co-author of By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World (2014). A resident of New York, Economy has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Washington.

Economy earned a B.A. with honors in political science from Swarthmore, followed by an A.M. in political science from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan. She is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Vermont Law School. Economy and her husband, David, have three children.