McGuinn Hall Room 338
Telephone: 617-552-3259
Email: robert.ross.1@bc.edu
Sino-American Relations; Chinese Politics
Robert S. Ross is Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Associate, John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 1984. He has taught at Columbia University and at the University of Washington and in 1989 was a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. In 1994-1995 he was Fulbright Professor at the Chinese Foreign Affairs College, in 2003 he was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Strategic Studies, Tsinghua University (Beijing), and in 2014 was Visiting Scholar, School of International Relations, Peking University. In 2009 he was Visiting Scholar, Institute for Strategy, Royal Danish Defence College. From 2009-2014 he has been Adjunct Professor, Institute for Defence Studies, Norwegian Defence University College.听 In 2023, he was Visiting Professor at Fudan University听(Shanghai) and Peking University.
Professor Ross's research focuses on Chinese security policy and defense policy, East Asian security, and U.S.-China relations. His recent publications include听Chinese Security Policy: Structure, Power, and Politics,听China鈥檚 Ascent: Power, Security, and the Future of International Politics, 补苍诲听New Directions in the Study of Chinese Foreign Policy. His other major works include听Normalization of U.S.-China Relations: An International History;听Great Wall and Empty Fortress: China鈥檚 Search for Security,听Negotiating Cooperation: U.S.-China Relations, 1969-1989, 补苍诲听The Indochina Tangle: China's Vietnam Policy, 1975-1979. Professor Ross is the author of numerous articles in听World Politics,听The China Quarterly,听International Security,听Security Studies,听European Journal of International Affairs,听Orbis,听Naval War College Review,听Foreign Affairs,听Foreign Policy,听The National Interest, 补苍诲听Asian Survey. His books and articles have been translated in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and various European countries.
Professor Ross has been the recipient of research fellowships from the University of Washington and Columbia University. He has received research and collaborative project grants from the Social Science Research Council, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the Smith-Richardson Foundation, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), The Asia Foundation, and The United States Institute of Peace.
Professor Ross has testified before various Senate and House committees and the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, he advises U.S. government agencies, and he serves on the Academic Advisory Group, U.S.-China Working Group, United States Congress. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Committee for U.S.-China Relations. Professor Ross is also a member of the executive committee of the John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, Senior Advisor of the Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Senior Advisor to the Institute for American Studies, Shanghai. He is a founding member and former board member of the United States Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (USCSCAP) and former co-chair of the Committee's task force on Confidence Strategic Building Measures. He has served on the editorial board of听Security Studies,听Journal of Contemporary China,听Journal of Cold War Studies,听Issues and Studies,听Asia Policy,听Journal of Chinese Political Science, the听Security Studies听book series of Shanghai People鈥檚 Press, and the听Grand Strategy听book series of Peking University Press.
鈥淓urope鈥檚 Contribution to the Asian Balance of Power: Player or Observer?,鈥 in Sebastian Biba, ed.,听Europe in an Era of US-China Strategic Rivalry: Challenges and Opportunities from an Outside-in Perspective听(Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2024).
鈥淐hinese Coercion, Wedge Strategies, and the U.S.-Philippine Alliance,鈥澨Journal of Contemporary China, 2024.
鈥淩eluctant Retrenchment: America鈥檚 Response to the Rise of China,鈥澨Naval War College Review, vol. 76, no. 4 (Autumn 2023).
鈥淭he Sources and Prospects of U.S.-China Competition,鈥澨Melbourne Asia Review,听no. 9 (March 2022).
US-China Foreign Relations: Power Transition and its Implications for Europe and Asia,听co-edited with 脴ystein Tunsj酶 and Wang Dong (London: Routledge, 2021).
鈥淟earning From Foreign Colleagues: Research In China,鈥 in Peter Krause and Ora Szekely, eds.听The Unorthodox Guide to Fieldwork听(New York: Columbia University Press, 2020).
鈥淏eyond Theoretical Determinism: Exploring The Complexity of Power Transitions鈥 (review essay),听Journal of East Asian Studies, vol. 20, no. 2 (2020).
鈥淚t鈥檚 Not a Cold War: Competition and Cooperation in U.S.-China Relations,鈥澨China International Strategy Review, vol. 2, no. 1 (2020).
Published in Chinese in听Zhongguo Guoji Zhanlue Pinglun听(China international strategy review), no. 6, 2020.
鈥淭he Changing East Asian Balance of Power and the Regional Security Order,鈥 in Robert S. Ross, 脴ystein Tunsj酶, and Wang Dong, eds.,听US-China Foreign Relations: Power Transition and its Implications for Europe and Asia听(New York: Routledge, 2020).
鈥淪ino-Russian Relations: The False Promise of Russian Balancing,鈥听International Politics, vol. 57, no. 5 (2020).
鈥淪ino-Vietnamese Relations in the Era of Rising China: Power vs. Resistance and the Sources of Instability,鈥听Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 30, no. 130 (2021).听
"On the Fungibility of Economic Power: China鈥檚 economic rise and the East Asian security order", European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 25(1) 302鈥327, (2018).
听鈥淣ationalism, Geopolitics and Naval Expansionism: From the Nineteenth Century to the Rise of China,鈥澨Naval War College Review, vol. 71, no. 4 (autumn 2018).听听
Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China: Power and Politics in East Asia.听Cornell University Press, 2017.
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