Experts

Brantly Womack

Fast Facts

  • Retired C.K. Yen Chair at the Miller Center
  • Expert on China
  • Received China Friendship Award for his work with Chinese universities

 

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • Asia
  • Economic Issues
  • Trade

Brantly Womack is a faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center and professor emeritus of foreign affairs at the University of Virginia. He received his BA degree in politics and philosophy from the University of Dallas, and after a Fulbright in philosophy at the University of Munich, earned his PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. 

Womack is the author of Recentering Pacific Asia (Cambridge University Press 2023), Asymmetry and International Relationships (Cambridge University Press 2016), China Among Unequals: Asymmetric International Relationships in Asia (World Scientific Press 2010), and China and Vietnam: The Politics of Asymmetry (Cambridge University Press 2006), as well as more than 100 articles and book chapters.

His co-edited book, Rethinking the Triangle: Washington-Beijing-Taipei (World Scientific Press 2016), was the product of a series of five international conferences that began at the Miller Center. He edited China’s Rise in Historical Perspective (Rowman and Littlefield 2010), the product of a lecture series at the Miller Center, and Contemporary Chinese Politics in Historical Perspective (Cambridge 1991). In 2011, Womack received the China Friendship Award for his work with Chinese universities. He holds honorary positions at Jilin University, East China Normal University, and Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University. 

Brantly Womack News Feed

The Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for international cooperation in Beijing was a historic milestone in a comprehensive and cooperative plan to reconfigure the connectivity of Asia. China has announced various initiatives to bring together all of Asia and to improve Asia’s connectivity to the rest of the world. The Belt and Road Initiative is a marker that China will come to be the center of Asia again, and it is the certain consequence of China’s rapid development. That China is returning to its historic role is beneficial to other Asian countries as well. Different from the Western world system, a system with China as its center is more accommodative and cooperative. With connectivity as its core, the Belt and Road Initiative promotes not only the connectivity between China and other Asian countries, but also between Asia and other areas. China’s relationship to ASEAN has played a special role in the evolution of this new thinking about Asia, and there is no doubt that ASEAN will be a main beneficiary of the re-centering of Asia. It is evident that the relationship between China and ASEAN is an asymmetric one, and mutual respect is required for the management of this relationship.
Brantly Womack World Economics and Politics
President Trump is firing the opening salvos of a two-front trade war, one in the west against advanced economies and allies, and the other in the east against China. While some critics oppose trade wars in principle, others think that we should unite with our allies against China. The fixation with China is understandable. It is the rising elephant in the room. However, the global economic transformation is larger than China, and efforts to contain China are likely to backfire.
Brantly Womack The Hill
What can Americans expect from the June 12 meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un?  What should our strategy be?
UVA Today sat down with the Miller Center's Todd Sechser and Brantly Womack ahead of Monday’s summit to discuss the key points they will be looking for in any new deal and the potential impact of the summit on U.S. foreign policy.
Brantly Womack and Todd Sechser UVA Today
China responds to proposed U.S. tariffs with tariffs of its own, demonstrating that it now considers itself to be a great world power.
Brantly Womack
Miller Center scholars are featured in a wide range of Virginia Festival of the Book events this week