2026 Global Research Trips

Conference on the Future of U.S. and China

Cameron Waltz, East Asian Studies

I am grateful to have been able to use my Global Perspectives Award funding to attend the Asia Society of Northern California's “The Future of U.S. & China Conference 2026.” At this one-day conference, I attended panels regarding the U.S. and China’s evolving trade, investment, people-to-people, and security relations, which were chaired by leading scholars and practitioners in my field. As a student of U.S.-China relations and a policy researcher, these issues are very close to my heart and my research, and it is rare to get face-to-face exposure with many of the experts who have worked on the relationship. In particular, I got to meet with Julian Gerwitz, who previously served as Senior Director for China and Taiwan on the National Security Council, and we got to speak about my research, which he had actually read! My most impactful learning experience was attending a closed-door roundtable concerning Taiwan with relevant subject matter experts from the U.S., China, and Taiwan all presenting and conversing with one another. While I can't comment on the contents, the conversation was deeply illuminating and provided me with a great deal of inspiration for how I might write and frame my graduate thesis here at Stanford.