I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science, International & Public Affairs and Watson Institute Assistant Professor of China Studies at Brown University.

My research focuses on international security and Chinese foreign policy, with a particular interest in the design of institutions responsible for national security decision-making. My book project offers a theory of the origins and consequences of national security institutions, coupling an original cross-national time series dataset with new archival and interview data from China, Taiwan, India and Pakistan. Other research projects employ qualitative, statistical and experimental methods to address theoretical puzzles regarding the politics of elite advisers, bureaucracies, and international security across a variety of regional contexts.

I received a PhD in political science from Harvard University and held postdoctoral fellowships at the Belfer Center International Security Program and Harvard-Columbia China and the World Program. My research has been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Institute for Strategic and Conflict Studies at George Washington University, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Previously, I served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, with assignments to Afghanistan, U.S. Cyber Command, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Some of my writing has been published by   
​The Washington Post, War on the Rocks and the Center for a New American Security.

​I am also an Ironman triathlete, runner, and avid enthusiast of musicals by Stephen Sondheim.

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Image: Tiananmen Square, China - 2005