Rick Waters is the director of Carnegie China, an East Asia-based research center focused on China’s regional and global role, and the Maurice R. Greenberg Director’s Chair.

Waters joined Carnegie after a 27-year career culminating as the U.S. State Department’s top China policy official, overseeing the creation of the Office of China Coordination, informally known as the China House, and concurrently serving as deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan.  He also held multiple roles at the U.S. embassy in Beijing—including during the period between the accidental U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade (1999) and the Hainan Island incident (2001).  After retiring from government service, Rick served as managing director for Northeast Asia at the Eurasia Group, a global geopolitical risk practice, and as a nonresident fellow at the Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis. 

Fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, Mr. Waters also speaks (rusty) Arabic and worked for more than a decade on Middle East issues, including as director for Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan at the National Security Council under George W. Bush and as political counselor in Jerusalem and Islamabad.  Mr. Waters holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service.