Dr. Ryan Hass is the director of the John L. Thornton China Center and holds the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution. A prominent foreign policy analyst and former advisor to President Obama, his research centers on the political, economic, and security dynamics shaping U.S. relations with East Asia. In addition to his leadership at Brookings, he is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program, a nonresident affiliated fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School, and a Senior Advisor for both McLarty Associates and The Scowcroft Group. White House Service: From 2013 to 2017, Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the White House National Security Council. In this capacity, he advised senior officials on U.S. policy and coordinated responses across government agencies. Foreign Service: Before his White House tenure, he spent over a decade as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, serving in Beijing, Seoul, and Ulan Bator.