A Conversation with Matt Pottinger

Join us for a fireside chat between former Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger and Ambassador Nicholas Burns as they discuss China’s trajectory and the future of U.S.-China relations.

This event is hosted by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and is co-sponsored by the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia.

About the Speakers

Ambassador Nicholas Burns is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School and the Founder and Faculty Chair of the Program on Diplomacy and Statecraft. Burns served as U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2021 to 2025.

Matt Pottinger is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and CEO of Garnaut Global. He served on the National Security Council as Deputy National Security Advisor (2019–2021) and as Senior Director for Asia (2017–2019), where he led the first Trump administration’s work on the Indo-Pacific region and helped shape its shift in China policy. Mr. Pottinger served as a U.S. Marine, completing three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2007 and 2010. Earlier, he was a reporter in China for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Mr. Pottinger is the editor and contributing author of The Boiling Moat (2024). He is a graduate in Chinese Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Event Details 

The Ash Center encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its events. To inquire about an accommodation, please contact our events team at info@ash.harvard.edu prior to the event. 

Additional questions? Email the Ash Center events team at info@ash.harvard.edu.