Robert Spalding
Robert S. Spalding III is a retired United States Air Force brigadier general. He currently serves as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. His work focuses on U.S.–China relations, economic and national security, and the Asia-Pacific military balance.
Spalding earned a B.Sc. degree and M.Sc. degree in Agricultural Business, Fresno State University, Fresno, California in 1987 and 1993, followed by a Ph.D. in Economics and Mathematics from University of Missouri, Kansas City in 2007 and a second M.Sc. in Strategic Studies from Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama in 2008. He was promoted to Brigadier General in November 2016. From December 2016 to May 2017, he was U.S. Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché to China, Beijing and from May 2017 to January 2018, Senior Director for Strategic Planning, National Security Council, White House, Washington D.C.
While at the National Security Council, Spalding notably wrote a memo calling for nationalizing the development of 5G wireless network. Spalding's advocacy was reportedly deemed outside his authority and he was subsequently asked to leave the NSC. He has since been notable as a critic of China.
In 2019, he published the book Stealth War: How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept.
