>> WRITER
The China Quarterly described China and Southeast Asia (Praeger,1975, revised edition, paperback-1979) as "The standard work on the subject." Foreign Affairs Quarterly called The Dragon And The Wild Goose (Greenwood, 1987, revised edition, paperback-1990) "a very rich comparison of Indian and Chinese societies and cultures." China scholar Doak Barnett declared it “a tour de force.” Reviewers said The Rise And Fall of Totalitarianism (Paragon, 1993) was: "insightful and original" (Nick Platt President Asia Society), and "an intellectual roller coaster" (Harry Harding, George Washington University).
The Times Literary Supplement (London) wrote that The Generalissimo’s Son (Harvard University Press, 2000) was “superb...magnificently researched....a fascinating story.” The Economist saw The Generalissimo (Harvard University Press, 2009) as “enthralling,” Foreign Affairs concluded it would “reshape the historical debate over the failure of democracy and the rise of communism in twentieth-century China.” The Financial Times of London picked it as one of the best books of 2009. In January 2010 it won the Lionel Gelber Prize, which The Economist described as the most important world prize for English-language non-fiction.
Writer, director, producer PBS documentary: Ubuntu, African and Afrikaner (broadcast on PBS stations throughout the U.S. in 2001). Included in Chicago’s National Documentary Museum. Articles and “op eds” on world affairs in The Washington Post, LA Times, and The New York Times. Interviewee (VOA, BBC, PBS, CBS, & FOX) and speaker on China, Taiwan, Cuba, South Africa, and other issues.
>> U.S. FOREIGN SERVICE
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research; representative of the Secretary of State on all senior national intelligence committees. Chief of Mission, US Interests Section Havana Cuba. Diplomat-in-Residence, Carter Presidential Center. Director General’s Annual Award for best foreign service reporting (runner-up another year); two superior honor awards. Other awards and commendations for reporting and negotiations on: China, Taiwan, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Cuba, and the Philippines..
OTHER FOREIGN SERVICE ASSIGNMENTS: ASIAN AFFAIRS: >> Director of Analysis for Asian & Pacific Affairs, Dept.of State; >>Political Counselor, US Embassy. Beijing; >>White House NSC staff member for East Asia; >>Officer-in-Charge, Chinese Political Affairs, Dept. of State; >>chief, Chinese external affairs reporting, US Consulate Gen, Hong Kong; >>US Consul for Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei; >>analyst, Chinese external affairs, Intelligence & Research Bureau, Dept. of State; >>2nd Secretary, US Embassy Taipei. AFRICAN AFFAIRS: >>Coordinator, Carter Center election monitoring projects in Zambia and Liberia (also in Guyana): Acting Chief, US Liaison Office/Observer Team, Namibia; >Political Counselor, US Embassy, Pretoria/Cape Town; >3rd Secretary, US Embassy Accra, Ghana.
>> ACADEMIC
Present: >>Assc.in Research, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard. Previous: >>BA, Vanderbilt; >>MA (Far Eastern Studies), Michigan; >>Una Chapman Cox Fnd.Sabbatical (Harvard U., travel/research in India); >>Guest faculty, Emory U. and Spelman College; >>Staff Assc., Ctr. for Chinese Studies, Michigan; >>Foreign Service Institute (Wash., DC and Taichung, Taiwan), two year Chinese language and area course.
>> MILITARY
U.S. Naval Aviation Cadet; US Marine Corps Naval Aviator (fixed wing, carrier qualified, and helicopter), four years active duty, including in Japan with wife Betsy living in local neigborhoods in Kamakura and Zushi.
Abodes and SELECTED Travels
Abodes: after college lived and worked in: Washington DC, Pensacola, Cherry Point, Opama, Kamakura, Zushi, Oceanside, Carlesbad, Falls Church, Accra, Alexandria, Taizhong, Taipei, Fairfax, Ann Arbor, Kuching, Hong Kong, Cambridge (MA), Bethesda, Pretoria, Cape Town, Windhoek, Beijing, Arlington, Havana, Atlanta, Seagrove (FL), and back to Arlington.
Travels: across the South China Sea with one other person by catamaran; down the Zambezi rapids by raft; across Russia on the Trans-Siberian; up Mt. Kinabalu by foot; racing sail boats in busy Hong Kong Harbor; three months by train, bus, boat, & plane through India; hot air ballooning over Cappadocia; across China’s Gobi by local bus; in a local river steamer down the Yangtze Gorges (before the dams were built); river steamer and long-boat up Borneo’s Rajang River; motor biking around Bali; to Confucius’ hometown by road bike; all over Cuba by car; camera safaris in game parks in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Kenya; snorkeling in Truk lagoon, the Indian Ocean the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the South China Sea, snorkeling over the sunken Lycian city of Simena; skydiving over Long Island; climbing Table Mountain and Lion’s Head in Cape Town, jogging at dawn around the Temple of Delphi, the Turfan Depression, and a hundred other sites, snowed in on a house boat in Kashmir with the Himalayas in sight; swimming in hot sulfur-waters over the ruins of a Roman bath house in Heliopolis, lecturing on the SS Rotterdam from Singapore to Osaka, and some fifty flights and voyages across the oceans.
