He’s one of America’s foremost experts on United States-China relations, boasts a résumé that spans the Department of State to the Brookings Institution, and has authored dozens of books about international affairs. But while David Shambaugh lives most of the year in Washington, D.C., where he serves as a professor at George Washington University, he also considers himself a “native son” of Traverse City, and has written nearly all his books while overlooking West Grand Traverse Bay from his family’s home on Old Mission Peninsula.

With Shambaugh set to kick off a new season of programming at Northwestern Michigan College’s International Affairs Forum (IAF) this evening (Thursday), The Ticker sits down with the professor to learn more about his northern Michigan roots, his expertise in Asia affairs, and why Traverse Citians should be paying attention to China relations.

Shambaugh’s appearance at the IAF this evening is connected to his latest book, Breaking the Engagement: How China Won & Lost America. The book examines how “a sharp increase in tensions” between the U.S. and China over the past decade has led to “a complete reorientation of American policies toward China – from ‘engagement’ to ‘competition,’” and what the implications might be for America.

Shambaugh wrote Breaking the Engagement – as well as most of his 35-book oeuvre – while summering in Traverse City. During the school year, Shambaugh teaches at George Washington, where he is a full-time faculty member and the founding director of the China Policy Program for the university’s Elliott School of International Affairs. His career has also included stints in the Department of State (he served on the White House National Security Council staff during the Jimmy Carter Administration) and the Brookings Institution (as a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program from 1996 to 2016).

But Shambaugh has kept a connection with northern Michigan – one he says reaches back to before he was even born.

“My grandfather came to Traverse City from the Chicago region in 1905, my father followed in 1908, and I've been coming there every year since 1953,” Shambaugh tells The Ticker. When he was young, summers in northern Michigan consisted of working in the local cherry orchards. Nowadays, they serve as Shambaugh’s writing retreats. In fact, those summer sojourns have become such a big part of Shambaugh’s life that he now considers himself a Traverse Citian.

“I think of myself as a native son, even though I didn't grow up here during the school year; I grew up in Illinois, so I didn't go to the Traverse City school system,” Shambaugh says. “But I do consider Traverse City to be my home now.”

Part of that “home” feeling comes courtesy of the IAF, which has made Shambaugh one of its regular guests over the past two decades. The professor made his first appearance on the IAF stage 20 years ago next month, served as keynote speaker for an ambitious two-day conference in 2014 that focused on China, and returned to the series again in 2017.

According to IAF Executive Director Alex Tank, Shambaugh’s expertise lends itself well to repeat appearances, given the evergreen nature of the U.S.-China relationship. Tank says IAF’s most-watched video on YouTube is a presentation on China from last year, given by award-winning journalist Lucy Hornby.

“China is one of those topics that's always of interest, because the relationship, economically speaking, is so vital to the United States and the world economy,” Tank says. “That economic symbiosis is something that we can't ignore. And then you juxtapose that with the Chinese Communist Party – the regime and the authoritarian approach to governance – and that becomes our main friction point. These issues are always relevant to our audiences.”

“China is the most important country in the world for the United States,” Shambaugh adds. “So, the United States has to get its relationship with China right. But it's also a very complicated relationship. It's evolved into something extremely contentious and competitive, and it’s become a comprehensive challenge for Americans, in terms of economic, social, political, diplomatic, security, and ideological values. China is just a major factor in so many different ways for Americans.”

Even just recently, Shambaugh notes, headlines around U.S.-China affairs have touched upon everything from the Chinese government’s influence on American politics to the impact of Trump’s trade war with China. These issues and others, Shambaugh stresses, are things that every American should be paying attention to – not least Michiganders, who could be more susceptible than most to any potential fallout.

“Michigan, as a state, ranks I think fourth amongst the 50 American states in terms of its total trade volume with China,” Shambaugh says. “So, it's an extremely important country for the state of Michigan.”

Shambaugh's IAF event is slated to begin at 7pm this evening at Milliken Auditorium.