About the Author

Richard C. Bush is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution and director of its Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. He has worked on China and Taiwan issues his entire professional career: at the Asia Society, on the House International Relations Committee, on the National Intelligence Council, and at the American Institute in Taiwan, where he served as chairman and managing director from 1997 to 2002.

Reviews

"Richard Bush has written the most comprehensive English-language account of the vicissitudes of cross-Strait relations. The author serves as historian, detailing the long-term development of cross-Strait relations; as political scientist, describing the domestic politics of Taiwan and China and their respective foreign policy goals; and as policy expert, offering some ways out of the current impasse between Beijing and Taipei." —Steven Phillips, Towson University, Pacific Affairs, 12/22/2006|"an excellent study that lucidly and comprehensively outlines the fundamental procedural and substantive issues in cross-strait relations even as it highlights the intractability of the deadlock and the real limits to U.S. influence." —Steven M. Goldstein, Smith College, Journal of Asian Studies, 11/1/2006|"While Mr. Bush believes that the Cross-Strait dilemma may never be entirely resolved, his book achieves its objective of clarifying the dispute and steering readers away from dangerous misassumptions." —Kin-ming Liu, Far Eastern Economic Review, 3/1/2006|"Bush brings impeccable credentials to this work... [He] has produced a cogent analysis of the problems preventing a resolution of cross-Strait tensions, and a nuanced critique of why the solutions proposed thus far are unlikely to work." —June Teufel Dreyer, in Taiwan Business Topics, 3/15/2005|"Richard Bush has written the most comprehensive English-language account of the vicissitudes of cross-strait relations. This short review cannot do justice to the richness of Bush's study." — Pacific Affairs|"Mr. Bush, as a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. Embassy, and currently director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, is uniquely qualified to offer his answers in this detailed study of the 'Taiwan Strait issue.'" —Kim-Ming Liu, Hong Kong's Apple Daily, Far Eastern Economic Review|"Richard Bush's book on the Taiwan-China conundrum benefits from his vast experience in the field and rigorous intellectual analysis." —Laurence Eyton, Taiwan Review, 10/31/2006|"'Untying the Knot' is the best account to date of why Taiwan and mainland China have remained divided since 1949 and why both regimes have failed to negotiate a resolution to their conflicting claims." —Ramon H. Myers, Hoover Institution, The China Review, 4/1/2006|"leaves the reader with a coherent picture of this complex subject" —Raymond F. Burghardt, The East-West Center, International Affairs|"Richard Bush is a well-known Taiwan specialist. His latest book, Untying the Knot, is a genuine tour de force. It makes a comprehensive, realistic, clear and convincing presentation of one of the most complex issues that the US and the international community are facing today: the China-Taiwan conundrum....definitely a 'must-read'" —Jean-Pierre Cabestan, CNRS, Paris, The China Journal, 7/1/2006|"as good a guide as there is in the United States for navigating these complex and often treacherous waters....Bush documents in authoritative fashion the many complex historical, political, sociological, and even psychological elements of the current impasse. -Derek Mitchell

a brace effort to untangle one of the most complex national security challenges confronting the United States in the current security environment....As one of the nation's foremost experts on the Taiwan quandary, Bush demonstrates encyclopedic knowledge concerning both the origins of the dispute and, in particular, the fast moving pace of developments during the past decade. -Lyle Goldstein

Bush in uniquely qualified to write such a book, as he is one of a handful of American Asia experts who possess a profound sense for the real Taiwan -Dan Blumenthal

a primer for understanding the underlying causes of, and possible policy responses to this most dangerous deadlock. -Steven M. Goldstein" — Asia Policy, 7/1/2006