I am a historian of modern China and expert on US-China relations and Korean Peninsula affairs. This year, I’m excited to be joining the faculty of Johns Hopkins University SAIS as Resident Professor of International Politics at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.  

Before relocating to China, I was based for over a dozen years in Seoul as Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University, where I was promoted to full professor with tenure in 2019. In 2023 I was honored to be the inaugural Tsao Fellow in China Studies at the American Academy in Rome, and remained in Rome as Visiting Professor of International History and Politics at Luiss University and Visiting Professor of Political Science at John Cabot University. 

Much of my research, writing and teaching centers on the question of empire. I am slowly revising a book manuscript tentatively titled “Ideal of Empire: The Life and Thought of Gu Yanwu,” about a leading Confucian thinker of the 17th century. The manuscript explores the historical moment of China’s last imperial transition (from the Ming to the Qing dynasty) and how the vestiges of classical thinking about empire shape mentalities today.  Another project major book project looks at China and the United States through the lens of imperial history– stay tuned for more on that.

I also carefully watch and analyze developments on the Korean Peninsula. A third research and writing project under development takes a hard look at the utter failure of North Korea policy, and offers a radically new approach. 

The articles, essays, op-eds, and book reviews on this site are mostly related to my attempt to use historical thinking to shed light on current issues in China, the two Koreas, and US policy in East Asia– from politics and ideas in the PRC, to the intensifying US-China rivalry, to the intractable problem of what to do about North Korea. Thanks for reading.