Richard J. Ellings

Richard J. Ellings is Co-founder, President Emeritus, and Counselor at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). He is also a member of the institution’s Board of Directors. At the University of Washington, Dr. Ellings is Affiliate Professor of International Studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Dr. Ellings was assistant director and on the faculty of the Jackson School from 1986 to 1989. In this capacity he was a member of the school’s Executive Committee and responsible for a wide range of administrative functions. He taught courses dealing with Asia, American foreign policy, and international relations (including foreign economic policy and international political economy), and was director of the George E. Taylor Foreign Affairs Institute.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Ellings served as legislative assistant in the U.S. Senate, Office of Senator Slade Gorton, and was responsible for legislation on foreign and defense policy. More recently he has served as consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Department of State, Department of Energy, Government Accountability Office, and other U.S. government offices and agencies and testified before Congress and the International Trade Commission.

His books include Axis of Authoritarians: Implications of China-Russia Cooperation (2018, contributing author and co-editor with Robert Sutter); Embargoes and World Power: Lessons from American Foreign Policy (1985); Private Property and National Security (1991, co-author); Southeast Asian Security in the New Millennium (1996, co-editor with Sheldon Simon); Strategic Asia 2003–04: Fragility and Crisis (2003), Strategic Asia 2002–03: Asian Aftershocks (2002), and Strategic Asia 2001–02: Power and Purpose (2001) (co-editor with Aaron Friedberg); Korea’s Future and the Great Powers (2001) (co-author and co-editor with Nicholas Eberstadt).  As executive director for the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (IP Commission), he was editor of The IP Commission Report (2013) and The Update to the IP Commission Report (2017). He is also the co-founder and co-chairman of the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Asia Policy and established the Strategic Asia Program.

For many years, Dr. Ellings was affiliate professor of international studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Dr. Ellings received the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award and was a nominee for the same award at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where he taught in 1980 and 1981. He earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of California–Berkeley and his MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Washington.