Council Fellow Elizabeth Economy’s The River Runs Black Named Best Social Sciences Book on Asia

August 30, 2005—The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future(Cornell University Press, 2004) by Director of Asia Studies Elizabeth Economy was named the best social sciences book on Asia published in 2003 or 2004. The award was presented by the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) at an August 20 ceremony in Shanghai. ICAS is the world’s foremost international convocation of Asia studies practitioners, encompassing over a thousand scholars from the Americas, Europe, andAsia. The ICAS book prize was established to increase the worldwide visibility of Asia-related publications. The competition is global in scope, and all scholarly books pertaining to Asiapublished in 2003 and 2004 were eligible.

Economy, the Council’s C.V. Starr Senior Fellow, has written extensively on both Chinese domestic and foreign policy. Her other books are China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects, co-edited with Michel Oksenberg (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1999) and The Internationalization of Environmental Protection, co-edited with Miranda Schreurs (Cambridge Press, 1997). She has also published articles in foreign policy and scholarly journals such as Foreign Affairs andSurvival, and op-eds and book reviews in The New York Times, The WashingtonPost, and The International Herald Tribune, among others. She serves on several China-related boards and consults frequently for the U.S. government. Dr. Economy received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, her M.A. from Stanford University and her B.A. from SwarthmoreCollege.