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In the News

Dec 29, 2021

Manning in The Hill: Is China’s power peaking?

By Atlantic Council

On December 29, Robert Manning’s column in The Hill highlighted the findings from the recent Atlantic Council’s Global Foresight 2022 report. “Some fear that Xi may divert attention from stagnation with a more aggressive military policy toward Taiwan to shore up the CCP’s nationalist legitimacy. But an economically struggling China could also unravel global stability: […]

Politics & Diplomacy
Security & Defense

In the News

Dec 13, 2021

Manning in The Hill: The truths and fallacies of Biden’s Summit for Democracy

By Atlantic Council

On December 13, Manning published his biweekly op-ed in The Hill, writing about the Summit for Democracy and the need for democracies to look internally at the factors causing rising authoritarianism. “Mobilizing allies and like-minded partners into coalitions to influence updated rules and norms on specific issues is the prerequisite of any viable U.S. strategy. […]

China
Politics & Diplomacy

In the News

Dec 9, 2021

Manning in Voice of America: Beijing Winter Olympics test US-South Korea cooperation on China

By Atlantic Council

On December 9, Robert Manning was quoted in a Voice of America article on how the Beijing Olympics challenge the relationship between the United States and South Korea. “While the US would not be happy [if the South Korean government participated in the Olympics], especially if most US allies also boycott official presence at the […]

China
Korea

Robert A. Manning is a former senior fellow with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. Previously, he served as a senior strategist at the National Counterproliferation Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) from 2010 to 2012, and as the director of long-range energy and regional/global affairs at the US National Intelligence Council’s Strategic Futures Group from 2008 to 2010. From 2005 to 2008, Manning served as a member of the US Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and from 2001 to 2005, he was senior counsellor for energy, technology, and science policy at the US Department of State, where he advised the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs and other senior officials on a range of issues including energy and climate change policy and new energy technologies.

From 1997 to 2001, he was director of Asian studies and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He led several CFR task forces, including the Korea Task Force and the Southeast Asia Task Force among others. Manning was previously an adviser for policy and public diplomacy to the assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs at the State Department and served as an adviser to the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1988 to 1989.

His publications include The Asian Energy Factor (Palgrave/St. Martins 2000) and China, Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control. He has published essays on nuclear weapons; numerous journal articles on international energy and Asian security issues; and roughly half a dozen book chapters in edited volumes on China, Korea, Japan, regional security architecture, energy, and energy security.

He has published widely in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Chosun Ilbo, and other publications.