Michael Wills

Michael Wills has served as President at NBR since July 2024.

Prior to his current position, he was executive vice president (from 2018 to 2024), vice president of strategy and finance (from 2016 to 2017), vice president of research and operations (from 2008 to 2015), and director of the Strategic Asia and Southeast Asia Studies Programs (from 2000 to 2007).

His research expertise includes geopolitics, international security, and the international relations of Asia. He is co-editor with Ashley J. Tellis and most recently Alison Szalwinksi of eleven Strategic Asia volumes—including Reshaping Economic Interdependence in the Indo-Pacific (2023), Navigating Tumultuous Times in the Indo-Pacific (2021–22), U.S.-China Competition for Global Influence (2020), China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions (2019), Power, Ideas, and Military Strategy in the Asia-Pacific (2017), Understanding Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific (2016), and Foundations of National Power in the Asia-Pacific (2015)—and with Robert M. Hathaway of New Security Challenges in Asia (2013). He is a contributing editor to three other Strategic Asia books and several other edited volumes on Asian security.

Before joining NBR, Mr. Wills worked at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, and prior to that with Control Risks Group, an international political and security risk management firm, in London.

He holds a BA (Honors) in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford.