U.S. relations with China are more strained now than in the past 40 years. What do we and the world want from China, the largest country and second largest economy, and what should we expect? Can we prevent conflict and cooperate on important issues with China? How could this be done and what would it look like? Or are we, as a prominent historian has theorized, “Destined for War?” This will affect all of us. So let’s have a conversation.

Lewiston-Auburn Senior College will present a free online presentation featuring Susan Thornton at 12 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 15, via Zoom. To attend, email us at laseniorcollege@gmail.com by 12 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 14, and we will send you an email with the link on the morning of the event.

Thornton recently joined Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center as a Senior Fellow following a distinguished 28-year career at the Department of State. She was Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during the first 18 months of the Trump administration and led East Asia policy-making amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a generally deteriorating environment in the United States for international economic and diplomatic engagement. She was the architect of the diplomatic pressure campaign on the North Korean regime, structured the administration’s initial approach to China, and developed the administration’s trademark Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Thornton received her M.A. in International Relations and Soviet Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1991 and earned an M.S. in National Strategy and Resource Management at the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School in 2010. Thornton graduated with a B.A. from Bowdoin College in Economics and Russian in 1985, and taught in international secondary schools in Brussels, London, and Chile. She speaks Russian, Mandarin Chinese and French, is a member of numerous professional associations and is on the Board of Trustees for the Eurasia Foundation.

Thornton is married with three grown children and likes to spend as much time as possible outdoors, especially on her farm in Lisbon, Maine.

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