Robert Daly

Robert Daly is visiting professor of the practice and founding director of the Program on China and the United States in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He directed the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center from 2013 to 2025. Prior to that, he served as American Director of the Hopkins - Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China. He began work in U.S.-China relations at the American Embassy in Beijing in the late 1980s. After leaving the Foreign Service, he taught Chinese at Cornell, worked on television and theater projects in China, and helped produce a Chinese-language version of Sesame Street. He is a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the American Mandarin Society, a member of the Task Force on U.S. China Policy, and leads numerous international dialogues and research projects. His analysis is featured regularly on NPR, C-Span, CNN and BBC. He lived in China for 12 years and has interpreted for Chinese and American leaders, including Jiang Zemin, Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger.