CSIS Names Ambassador Edgard Kagan Freeman Chair in China Studies

WASHINGTON, DC – April 13, 2026 – The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) today announced that Ambassador (ret.) Edgard D. Kagan has joined CSIS as the Freeman Chair in China Studies. With decades of senior-level diplomatic experience, Ambassador Kagan will help shape and expand CSIS’s analysis of China’s foreign and domestic policy and the wider Indo-Pacific region.

“Edgard has been one of our government’s most effective and impactful diplomats covering the Indo-Pacific,” said Dr. Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at CSIS. “His policy experience spans China, South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia at the highest levels of government across several presidential administrations. We are thrilled to welcome him to CSIS as the Freeman Chair.”

Ambassador Kagan served as U.S. ambassador to Malaysia for Presidents Trump and Biden from December 2023 until February 2026. He previously served as special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council during the Biden administration. 

Ambassador Kagan also served as chargé d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, as well as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He is a former deputy assistant secretary for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He has also served as U.S. consul general in Mumbai, India, and as deputy director of the Washington Office of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. He was a political officer and then political external unit chief at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

“I am thrilled to join CSIS, whose analyses and projects helped shape my thinking as a diplomat,” said Ambassador Kagan. “I look forward to continuing the outstanding work of the Freeman Chair and to working closely with and learning from the exceptional team at CSIS.”

Ambassador Kagan is the recipient of the Presidential Meritorious Award and numerous State Department performance awards. He speaks Mandarin Chinese and French and holds a BA from Yale University.

The Freeman Chair in China Studies is a leading source of insight and analysis on China’s evolving political system and the dynamics that impact its domestic policy agenda and external behavior. Established in the late 1990s, it advances the study of China and promotes understanding between the United States and the countries of the Indo-Pacific region. Explore the program’s latest work here.

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