Rear Admiral Eric A. McVadon, USN (Ret.)

Rear Admiral Eric A. McVADON, USN (Ret.) is Director of Asia-Pacific Studies, the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, specializing in international security factors shaping the Asia-Pacific region. He is also a consultant to components of the Department of Defense and other organizations on East Asia security affairs. During a 35-year career in the U.S. Navy, he served in a variety of operational and policy planning positions including assistant navigator of a carrier, command of a P-3C squadron and overseas naval air station, Deputy Director for Strategy, Plans and Policy, the Navy Staff; Commander, Iceland Defense Force; Deputy Director of the Defense Mapping Agency; and U.S. Defense and Naval Attaché at the American Embassy in Beijing. Recent publications include a chapter entitled "Humanitarian Operations and U.S.-China Naval Cooperation: Prospects and Problems," in Defining a Maritime Security Partnership with China (Naval Institute Press, forthcoming 2009); a chapter entitled "China’s Navy Today: Looking Toward Blue Water," in China Goes to Sea: Maritime Transformation in Comparative Historical Perspective (Naval Institute Press, forthcoming 2009); an article entitled “China and the United States on the High Seas” in China Security, Autumn 2007; a chapter entitled “China’s Maturing Navy” in the 2007 book China’s Future Nuclear Submarine Force and an article with the same title in the Naval War College Review, Spring 2006.  His testimony and prepared statements in September 2005, March 2007, and March 2009 on developments in the Chinese military and implications for the U.S. before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission are available at http://www.uscc.gov. He holds a B.A. from Tulane University and an M.S. in International Affairs from George Washington University and is a distinguished graduate of the National War College, the Naval War College, and the Naval Postgraduate School.