In an article in Asian Security, “China engages the Arctic: a great power in a regime complex,” Kathryn Lavelle, Liselotte Odgaard and I examine how China pursues its interests in the Arctic. Specifically, we how and when it seeks to work through the existing “regime complex” versus engaging in bilateral cooperation with Arctic states. We find that …
Stormy Seas: The South China Sea in US-China Relations
In this book chapter, Kacie Miura and I examine the role of the disputes in the South China Sea in the evolution of US-China relations. Based on an examination of American and Chinese views of each other’s role in these waters over the last decade, we argue that the dispute has increased the scope and …
China and India are pulling back from the brink
For the Washington Post‘s Monkey Cage, I examine the latest on the China-India border. Read it here.
A ‘China in the World’ Paradigm for Scholarship
Along with Melanie Manion and Yuhua Wang, I contributed to the introduction to a special issue of Studies in Comparative International Development. In the issue, we explore how to define scholarship that purposefully migrates across the traditional borders of comparative politics and international relations in the study of China. Read the introduction here.
China’s Sovereignty Obession
Although I did not choose the title, my essay on the clash on the China-India border has been published on the Foreign Affairs website. Read it here.
Why are China and India skirmishing at their border?
For the Washington Post‘s Monkey Cage, I examine the growing tensions on the China-India border. Read it here.
Opportunism in the South China Sea?
A number of recent analyses have emphasized that China is seizing pandemic-created opportunities to improve its position in the South China Sea as other countries are distracted or otherwise unable to respond. A key implication of such claims is that absent the pandemic, China would have acted differently and perhaps with more restraint. In a …
China’s “World-Class Military” Ambitions: Origins and Implications
An article based on my testimony last summer before the USCC has been published The Washington Quarterly. I examine what the concept of building a “world-class military” as mentioned by Xi Jinping since 2016, especially in the 19th Part Congress Work Report. I argue that the phrase “world-class military” should be viewed as a general, …
China and the Border Dispute with India After 1962
I have contributed a chapter to the Routledge Handbook of China–India Relations. Specifically, I review China’s approach to its disputed border with India after the war between the two countries in 1962. China’s approach has emphasized maintaining stability on its southwestern frontier, defined as preventing the escalation of armed conflict on the border and maintaining …
Dangerous Confidence?: Chinese Views on Nuclear Escalation
In a new article in International Security, Fiona Cunningham and I explore Chinese views of nuclear escalation. Our review of original Chinese-language sources and interviews with members of China’s strategic community suggest that China is skeptical that nuclear escalation could be controlled once nuclear weapons are used and, thus, leaders would be restrained from pursuing …