An article in a Chinese foreign affairs journal identified Swaine as one of the four major scholars in the third generation of American "China watchers," along with David M. Lampton, Harry Harding, and Jonathan D.
He coordinates the U.S.-China Crisis Management Program (sponsored in part by the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies (Chinese: 中国国际战略研究基金会; pinyin: Zhōngguó Guójì Zhànlüè Yánjiū Jījīn Huì) which brings together scholars and practitioners from both countries to analyze past crises and discuss how to manage future crises in the relationship.
Swaine's 2006 book Managing Sino-American Crises: Case Studies and Analysis (with Zhang Tuosheng and Danielle F. S. Cohen) compiles several of the papers and analyses that arose from a 2004 conference in Beijing.
A book review by Steven Goldstein published in The China Quarterly called this program "clearly one of the more ambitious joint Sino-American social science projects that has been undertaken since scholarly contacts were restored in the 1980s.
"[4] Swaine coordinated an annual Conference on People's Liberation Army Affairs which was co-sponsored by the Taipei-based Center for Advanced Policy Studies (Chinese: 中華民國高等政策研究協會; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó Gāoděng Zhèngcè Yánjiū Xiéhuì), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the RAND Corporation, and the National Defense University.