Carla P. Freeman is a senior expert for the China program at USIP. She specializes in China's foreign policy, China and nontraditional security issues, and U.S.-China relations.

For more than a decade, she was a member of the China studies faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she directed the School’s Foreign Policy Institute. In 2020, she held the appointment of Library of Congress Chair in U.S.-China relations at the Library's Kluge Center. While at SAIS, she also served as American director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China and held various research fellowships, including at Harvard’s Fairbank Center.

Before joining SAIS, she worked on international civil society and sustainable development for The Johnson Foundation and as a political risk consultant focused on Northeast and Southeast Asia. Her career on China began with a summer job in the Science and Technology Office at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Freeman is the author of numerous monographs, edited volumes and articles.

Freeman is a graduate of Yale University, Sciences Po in Paris and Johns Hopkins University, where she completed her doctorate in international relations and China at SAIS. She was the recipient of a Randolph Jennings Peace Scholar Fellowship from USIP for research on her doctoral dissertation.

Publications By Carla

China Looks to Fill a Void in Central Asia

China Looks to Fill a Void in Central Asia

Thursday, May 25, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Gavin Helf, Ph.D.;  Alison McFarland

As the Group of Seven met at the end of last week in Hiroshima, Japan, China organized a summit with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, marking a new chapter in Beijing’s engagement with the region. Central Asian states are looking for a new partner to help ensure their own security against domestic rebellions, as Russia’s war in Ukraine has limited Moscow’s ability to fulfill a longstanding role as a guarantor of domestic stability in the region. While most of the summit’s public discussion focused on economic and trade issues, China noted that it would help Central Asia enhance it’s law enforcement and security capabilities, which aligns with Beijing’s intensifying campaign for “global security.”

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

Carla Freeman on China’s Vision for a New Global Security Order

Carla Freeman on China’s Vision for a New Global Security Order

Monday, May 22, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative seeks to supplant the U.S.-led order, and it is gaining traction in the Global South. “There is a sense among developing countries that the international security order isn’t working that well for them,” says USIP’s Carla Freeman. “But none of these countries want to be forced to choose between the U.S. and China.”

Type: Podcast

Five Takeaways from China’s Latest Diplomacy

Five Takeaways from China’s Latest Diplomacy

Thursday, May 18, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.;  Daniel Markey, Ph.D.;  Jason Tower;  Andrew Watkins

China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, has been on a whirlwind diplomatic tour in recent weeks, with high-profile meetings in Europe, Myanmar, Pakistan — where he also met with Taliban officials — and back home in Beijing with the U.S. ambassador to China. With U.S.-China relations as frosty as ever, Qin’s meeting with Ambassador Nicholas Burns signals that both sides want to manage better manage their differences. In Europe, Beijing is promoting its peace plan for Ukraine despite European concerns that Beijing is decidedly pro-Moscow. Meanwhile, amid crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar, China is wielding its clout to advance its own interests in spite of the implications for long-term stability.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

Xi Ramps Up Campaign for a Post-Pax Americana Security Order

Xi Ramps Up Campaign for a Post-Pax Americana Security Order

Thursday, May 4, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Alex Stephenson

Since China’s post-COVID opening in January of this year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his army of diplomats have begun intensifying their campaign for China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI). Xi first proposed the GSI last April, offering few details but saying the initiative would “promote security for all in the world.” Beijing has since elaborated in more detail through a Ministry of Foreign Affairs concept paper and has connected the GSI to its peace plan for Ukraine and the rapprochement it brokered between old rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia. Above all, the initiative aims to promote a vision of an alternative to the U.S.-led international order.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

What China's 'Peace Plan' Reveals about its Stance on Russia's War on Ukraine

What China's 'Peace Plan' Reveals about its Stance on Russia's War on Ukraine

Thursday, March 2, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.;  Andrew Scobell, Ph.D.

Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — which marks a clear violation of international law — Moscow has enjoyed support from a number of countries. Foremost among these is China. Over the last year, Beijing has not supported Russia in U.N. votes, has refrained from providing Russia with weapons, and has publicly proclaimed neutrality. But China has also refused to condemn the invasion, often repeated the Kremlin’s talking points about the war, opposed sanctions against Russia and helped prop up its economy. On the anniversary of the invasion, China released what it had previewed as a peace plan, which really amounted to a statement of principles reflecting Beijing’s longstanding talking points about the war.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

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