Professional Luncheon
Professor Harry Harding

Profile of Proffessor Harry Harding

Harry Harding is Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, and Professor of International Affairs and Political Science, at the George Washington University. A leader in the effort to redefine professional education in international affairs to serve the needs of the new century, he served as and is immediate past president of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs in 1996-97.

Dr. Harding is a specialist on Asian affairs with a particular interest in China. He is the author of A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China Since 1972 (1992), China and Northeast Asia: The Political Dimension (1988), China's Second Revolution: Reform After Mao (1987), and Organizing China: The Problem of Bureaucracy. 1949-1976 (1981). His edited volumes include Sino-American Relations. 1945-55: A Joint Reassessment of a Critical Decade (1989) and China's Foreign Relations in the 1980s (1984). He has published articles in a wide rang of journals, from World Politics to China Quarterly to Foreign Policy.

Dr. Harding joined the faculty of George Washington University in January 1995. He had previously been a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution (1983-94), an assistant and associate professor of political science at Stanford University (1971-83), and an instructor of political science at Swarthore College (1970-71). He has also been a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, directed the East Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, and held visiting or adjunct professorships at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington at Seattle, Georgetown University, the George Washington University, and United College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Harding received the Waiter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching from Stanford University in 1975. His first book, Organizing China, was awarded the 1986 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize, which honors outstanding books on subjects conceming the Pacific Rim. His most recent book, A Fragile Relationship, was named an "Outstanding Academic Book for 1992" by Choice magazine, and received the honorable mention award in the competition for the ''Best Book in Government and Political Science'' conducted by the Association of American Publishers.

Dr. Harding is a member of the Defense Policy Board, which advises the Secretary of Defense on major issues related to national security. He is also a trustee of the Asia Foundation, a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a director of the U.S. Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, a director of the Atlantic Council of The United States, He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a fellow of the World Economic Forum, a member of the U.S: Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Committee, and a consultant to numerous multinational corporations.

Dr. Harding was born in Boston in 1946. He earned his A.B. in public and international Affairs, summa cum laude, from Princeton University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. His wife, Roca, is Docent Coordinator at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art, the two Asian art museums of the Smithsonian Institution. The Hardings have one son, James, who is presently in his senior year (Form VI) at St. Albans School in Washington.

Dr. Harding has been a Trustee of The Asia Foundation since January 1992. He chairs the Program Review Committee and is a member of the Compensation and Executive Committees.