Murray S. Tanner, Ph.D.

Murray Scot Tanner, Ph.D. is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. Tanner has written and published widely on Chinese and East Asian politics and security issues including internal security, social unrest, policing in China, Chinese leadership politics, China-Taiwan relations, and China-North Korea relations. He is the author of many books, monographs, and articles, including China Confronts Afghan Drugs: Law Enforcement Views of “The Golden Crescent” (CNA, March 2011), Chinese Economic Coercion Against Taiwan: A Tricky Weapon to Use (RAND, 2007), and The Politics of Lawmaking in China (Oxford University Press, 1998). He is also co-author of A Question of Balance: Political Context and Military Aspects of the China-Taiwan Dispute (RAND, 2009), and Chinese Responses to U.S. Military Transformation and Implications for the Department Of Defense (RAND, 2007). His articles, which have appeared in such journals as the Washington Quarterly, Comparative Politics, the China Quarterly, and the China Journal include “Principals and Secret Agents: Central versus Local Control Over Policing and Obstacles to ‘Rule of Law’ in China” (China Quarterly, September 2007).

Before joining CNA in 2008, Tanner served as professor of political science at Western Michigan University, as senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and as the co-chairman’s senior staff member for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Tanner received his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.