David Firestein — Shift: America’s Changed Strategic Assumptions About China

The Interdisciplinary Studies Guest Speaker Series continues in the Mullen & James Humanities Hall with David Firestein, who will discuss America’s changed strategic assumptions about China. The talk will explore changing perspectives on U.S.-China relations. This event is presented by the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and UNC Asheville’s Global Studies and Law, Ethics, and Social Policy programs.

This is the second of three events in the 2026 Interdisciplinary Studies Guest Speaker Series. Additional events include a discussion by Professor Saman Majeed, Ph. D. on September 17 and a presentation from Professor Austin Hooe, Ph. D. on November 5.

About David Firestein

David J. Firestein is the inaugural president and CEO of the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations (Bush China Foundation) and a founding and current member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Prior to joining the Bush China Foundation, Firestein was the founding executive director of The University of Texas at Austin’s (UT) China Public Policy Center (CPPC) and a clinical professor at UT’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Before moving to UT, Firestein served as senior vice president and Perot Fellow at the New York City-based EastWest Institute (EWI), where he led the Institute’s track 2 diplomacy work in the areas of U.S.-China relations and U.S.-Russia relations; Firestein, who held EWI’s lone endowed chair, remains one of the longest-serving senior executives in EWI history.

A decorated career U.S. diplomat from 1992–2010, Firestein specialized primarily in U.S.-China relations.

Firestein is the author or co-author of three books on China, including two China-published Chinese-language best-sellers, as well as a large number of China-focused monographs, policy reports and articles (and publications on non-China-related topics). As a writer, Firestein broke new ground in a number of ways: in the mid-1990s, he became the first foreign citizen to have a regular column in a People’s Republic of China newspaper and the first foreign diplomat (and perhaps the first foreign citizen) to publish an original book in the country, among other milestones. He is a prolific public speaker and frequent commentator in the U.S. and Chinese media. The Voice of America’s Mandarin Service wrote in 2016 that Firestein is “one of the world’s best non-native speakers of Mandarin Chinese”; early in his career, he interpreted for dozens of top-level U.S. and Chinese leaders and officials.

Accessibility

UNC Asheville is committed to providing universal access to all of our events. If you have any questions about access or would like to request reasonable accommodations that will facilitate your full participation in the film screenings, please contact Stephanie Bullick, Director of Accessibility, at accessibility@unca.edu.