Dennis Wilder

Dennis Wilder is a senior fellow in of the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues and assistant professor of the practice in Asian studies in the School of Foreign Service. He is also a visiting professor of the practice at the Bush School of Government, Texas A&M (Washington DC campus). Wilder holds a B.A. from Kalamazoo College and an M.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University.

His accomplishments include:

• Served as National Security Council's (NSC) director for China (2004-2005) and then as the NSC special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asian affairs from 2005 to 2009, which included a series of presidential trips to Asia, notably the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
• Served from 2009 to 2015 as senior editor of the President’s Daily Brief, the worldwide intelligence update produced under auspices of the director of national intelligence.
• Served from 2015 to 2016 as the CIA’s deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific.
• Spent the 1975-1976 academic year at New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong studying Mandarin Chinese under the auspices of Yale-in-China.
• Awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the government of Japan in the 2025 Autumn Conferment of Decorations in recognition of his contributions toward promoting security cooperation between Japan and the United States.