New York – Oct. 30, 2017 - The EastWest Institute (EWI) announced today that Dr. Lora Saalman will join as vice president of the Asia-Pacific program. She will lead its strategic direction and continued facilitation of dialogues involving political, military, government, academic and business leaders addressing key issues in the region. Dr. Saalman will be based in New York, and will officially begin her role on January 2, 2018.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Saalman to EWI,” said Ambassador Cameron Munter, CEO and President of the EastWest Institute. “She is uniquely qualified to oversee and further broaden the impact of our Asia-Pacific program at a critical juncture in East Asian geopolitics. Given her subject expertise in arms control, cybersecurity, nuclear strategy and deterrence, Dr. Saalman will also be working in close coordination with other EWI programs, including our work with Russia and cyberspace.”  

Dr. Saalman was most recently director of the China and Global Security Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), where she focused on China’s cyber, nuclear and advanced weapon developments in relation to India, Russia and the United States.

Previously, she lectured at Tsinghua University and at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, and was also an associate with the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. Dr. Saalman also served as a research associate at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control (Washington, D.C.), as a visiting fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (New Delhi) and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (Washington, D.C.).

Dr. Saalman received her Ph.D. from Tsinghua University, where she was the first American to earn a doctorate from its Department of International Relations, a master’s degree from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a bachelor’s degree with Honors from The University of Chicago.