2023 World Emerging Security Forum

Speaker Information

Zhao Tong

Senior Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace China

  • 2023 – Present : Senior Fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • 2022 – 2023 : Visiting Research Scholar of Princeton University
  • 2014 – 2022 : Fellow/Senior Fellow of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy

Zhao Tong is a Senior Fellow of the Nuclear Policy Program and China Center at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Formerly based in Beijing, he now conducts research in Washington on strategic security issues, such as nuclear weapons policy, deterrence, arms control, nonproliferation, missile defense, hypersonic weapons, regional security issues in Asia Pacific, and China’s security and foreign policy.

He is also a nonresident researcher at the Science and Global Security Program of Princeton University, an associate editor of the journal Science & Global Security, and a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. He was a virtual visiting research fellow at the Cooperative Monitoring Center of the Sandia National Laboratories, a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at Harvard University, a nonresident WSD-Handa Fellow at Pacific Forum, and worked for the Office of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality.

He holds a PhD in science, technology, and international affairs from Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as an MA in international relations and a BS in physics from Tsinghua University. He is the author of “Tides of Change: China’s Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines and Strategic Stability” and “Narrowing the U.S.-China Gap on Missile Defense: How to Help Forestall a Nuclear Arms Race.” He has published in Arms Control Today, Asian Security, The Atlantic, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, and Politico, among others.