Dr. Elizabeth Freund Larus is the Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at University of Mary Washington in Virginia, USA, and President of E Larus Consulting LLC. She is an expert with decades of experience researching and analyzing the domestic politics and foreign relations of Taiwan, China and Japan. Her areas of interest include the cross-strait relations, maritime security issues in the Asia Pacific, and US foreign policy in East Asia. She is currently conducting research on US naval diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific.

She is the author of two books, Politics and Society in Contemporary China (2012) and Economic Reform in China 1979-2003: The Marketization of Labor and State Enterprises (2005). She has published more than 25 academic articles and book chapters concentrating on US national defense policy, the cross-strait relations, Taiwan’s security, and other related topics in scholarly journals, including Issues & Studies, American Journal of Chinese Studies, Policy Studies Review, TEKA (Poland) Southeast Review of Asian Studies, Asian Affairs, American Asian Review.

Dr. Larus was a Taiwan Fellowship scholar in 2015 awarded by Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Republic of China (Taiwan), and an Academic Fellow in 2007-2008 with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, DC. In addition, she was a recipient of several research grants, including grants awarded by Lingnan Foundation and Pacific Cultural Foundation.

She was a vising professor and researcher at several reputable universities in America and Asia, including National Chengchi University in Taiwan, University of Richmond in America, and Lingnan University in Hong Kong. She was also the former press secretary for U.S. Congressman Hal Daub. Dr. Larus has served on the editorial board of Issues & Studies and the board of the American Association for Chinese Studies.

Dr. Larus speaks Mandarin. She lived and worked in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and frequently conducts field research in Taipei, Beijing and Shanghai. She holds a B.A. in journalism from Creighton University, and a M.A. in public administration and Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia.