Michael Pillsbury

Former Senior Fellow and Director for Chinese Strategy

michael_pillsbury

At A Glance:

Michael Pillsbury was senior fellow and director for Chinese strategy at Hudson Institute. 

Biography

Michael Pillsbury was senior fellow and the director for Chinese strategy at Hudson Institute. He is a distinguished defense policy adviser, former high-ranking government official, and author of numerous books and reports on China.

During the Reagan administration, Dr. Pillsbury was assistant under secretary of defense for policy planning and responsible for implementation of the program of covert aid known as the Reagan Doctrine. From 1975 to 1976, while an analyst at the RAND Corporation, he published articles in Foreign Policy and International Security recommending that the United States establish intelligence and military ties with China. The proposal, publicly commended by Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, and James Schlesinger, later became US policy during the Carter and Reagan administrations.

Dr. Pillsbury served on the staff of four US Senate Committees from 1978 to 1984 and 1986 to 1991. As a staff member, he drafted the Senate Labor Committee version of the legislation that enacted the US Institute of Peace in 1984. He also assisted in drafting the legislation to create the National Endowment for Democracy and the annual requirement for a DOD report on Chinese military power.

In 1992, under President George H. W. Bush, Dr. Pillsbury was special assistant for Asian affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, reporting to Andrew W. Marshall, director of net assessment. Dr. Pillsbury is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Dr. Pillsbury is the author of China Debates the Future Security Environment (NDU Press, 2000), The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, and editor of Chinese Views of Future Warfare (NDU Press, 1998).

Dr. Pillsbury has a BA in history with honors in social thought from Stanford University, and an MA and PHD from Columbia University.

Events
08
October 2021
Past Event
Virtual Event | A Book Talk with Elbridge A. Colby
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Elbridge A. Colby
Nadia Schadlow
Michael Pillsbury
08
October 2021
Past Event
Virtual Event | A Book Talk with Elbridge A. Colby

Please be advised: This event will air live on this page at 12:00 p.m. EDT, Friday, October 8. Register for the event here.

Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Elbridge A. Colby
Nadia Schadlow
Michael Pillsbury
19
October 2020
Past Event
China's Eight Deadly Sins in Trade Policy: A Conversation with Peter Navarro
Featured Speakers:
Michael Pillsbury
Peter Navarro
19
October 2020
Past Event
China's Eight Deadly Sins in Trade Policy: A Conversation with Peter Navarro

Join Hudson Institute for a conversation with Assistant to the President and Director of the Office for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro

Featured Speakers:
Michael Pillsbury
Peter Navarro
19
February 2019
Past Event
Protecting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Strengthening the U.S.-Japan-India Trilateral Relationship
Featured Speakers:
Nobukatsu Kanehara
Tom Rose
Vice Admiral (ret.) Shekhar Sinha
Michael Pillsbury
Patrick Cronin
Arthur Herman
Lewis Libby
19
February 2019
Past Event
Protecting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Strengthening the U.S.-Japan-India Trilateral Relationship

Experts discuss the U.S.-India-Japan trilateral partnership

Featured Speakers:
Nobukatsu Kanehara
Tom Rose
Vice Admiral (ret.) Shekhar Sinha
Michael Pillsbury
Patrick Cronin
Arthur Herman
Lewis Libby
24
October 2018
Past Event
The Mark Palmer Forum: China’s Global Challenge to Democratic Freedom
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Michael J. Abramowitz
Jonas Parello-Plesner
Sarah Cook
Juan Pablo Cardenal
Laura Rosenberger
Carolyn Bartholomew
Xiao Qiang
Jan Jekielek
Peter Mattis
Bay Fang
Josh Rogin
Rachelle Peterson
Dr. Teng Biao
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
Perry Link
Isaac Stone Fish
Michael Pillsbury
(Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)
24
October 2018
Past Event
The Mark Palmer Forum: China’s Global Challenge to Democratic Freedom

Experts discuss democracy in China

(Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Michael J. Abramowitz
Jonas Parello-Plesner
Sarah Cook
Juan Pablo Cardenal
Laura Rosenberger
Carolyn Bartholomew
Xiao Qiang
Jan Jekielek
Peter Mattis
Bay Fang
Josh Rogin
Rachelle Peterson
Dr. Teng Biao
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
Perry Link
Isaac Stone Fish
Michael Pillsbury