CV - Joseph Torigian

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EDUCATION

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PhD in International Relations Theory and Comparative Politics
Dissertation: “Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles and the Fate of Three Revolutions”
Committee: Richard Samuels, Kathleen Thelen, Taylor Fravel, Barry Posen
Defended August 2016

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (Highest Distinction)

Major in Political Science (04/2006) and Minor in Asian Studies (04/2006)
William Jennings Bryan Prize (Departmental Political Science Award for graduating seniors)

RESEARCH

Authoritarian regimes, grand strategy, qualitative methods, Chinese and Russian politics and history

EXPERIENCE

American University
School of International Service | August 2018–Present
Assistant and Associate Professor (May 2024)

Stanford University
Hoover Institution | Fall 2023–Present
Research Fellow

University of Michigan
Lieberthal Rogel Center for Chinese Studies | March 2023–Present
Center Associate

Wilson Center
History and Public Policy Program | October 2018–Present
Global Fellow

Australian National University
China in the World Program | May 2022–July 2022
Visiting Fellow

Council on Foreign Relations
David Rockefeller Studies Program | September 2019–August 2020
Stanton Fellow

Princeton and Harvard University
China and the World Program | September 2017–June 2018
Conducted research and participated in CWP events

Stanford University
CISAC Visiting Scholar | October 2015–June 2017
Conducted research and participated in CISAC events as Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellow

George Washington University
Institute for Security and Conflict Studies Predoctoral Fellow | September 2014–June 2015
Conducted dissertation research and participated in ISCS events

Higher School of Economics, Moscow
IREX Scholar | November 2013–July 2014
Conducted dissertation research in Soviet archives

Fudan University, Shanghai
Fulbright Scholar | September 2008–June 2009
Conducted research on Chinese foreign policy norms and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Audited and participated in graduate-level Chinese language courses on Sino-American relations
Presented research findings to other scholars

Council on Foreign Relations
Research Associate | December 2006–June 2008
Assisted Senior Fellow Adam Segal in research by writing over 100 memos
Prepared more than $250,000 budget for Dr. Segal’s programs and planned roundtables
Conducted conference for peers and presented paper on Chinese and Russian foreign policy

LANGUAGES

Chinese: Fluent reading and speaking
Russian: Fluent reading and speaking

Critical Language Scholarship (US State Department) | June 2010–July 2010
Spent two months studying Russian in Ufa, Russia

Rep. of China Chinese Language Fellowship (FLAS) | September 2004–August 2005
Spent full year studying Chinese at ICLP at National Taiwan University

BOOKS

Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles after Stalin and Mao, Yale University Press, 2022
Reviewed in H-Diplo Forum, China Journal, Global Asia, The Wire, H-Soz-Kult, New York Review of Books, Andrew Batson’s Blog, Engelsberg Ideas, Russian Review, Slavonic and East European Review, Slavic Review, Political Science Quarterly, China Quarterly, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Named 2022 Book of the Year by ChinaTalk, Engelsberg Ideas, and CNAS Staff. New York Times Ezra Klein Show Book Recommendation.

The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun (forthcoming with Stanford University Press in June 2025)

PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES

“Echoes of June 1941 in March 1969: Intelligence and Escalation on the (Far) Eastern Front” (forthcoming at Journal of Cold War Studies)
“‘You Don’t Know Khrushchev Well’: The Ouster of the Soviet Leader as a Challenge to Recent Scholarship on Authoritarian Politics,” in Journal of Cold War Studies (2022) 24 (1): 78–115.
“A New Case for the Study of Individual Events in Political Science,” in Global Studies Quarterly, Volume 1, Issue 4, December 2021
“Historical Legacies and Leaders’ Worldviews: Communist Party History and Xi’s Learned (and Unlearned) Lessons,” in China Perspectives, 2018/1–2

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

“Xi Jinping’s Russian Lessons,” in Foreign Affairs, June 24, 2024
“What Beijing’s Muted Response to Wagner Mutiny Tells us about China-Russia Relations—and What it Doesn’t,” in The Conversation, June 30, 2023
“Xi Jinping and Ideology,” in Essays on China and US Policy, Wilson Center, 2021–2022 China Fellowship
“China’s Balancing Act on Russian Invasion of Ukraine Explained,” in The Conversation, March 10, 2022
“A Squabble About History Almost Killed Xi Jinping’s Father,” in Foreign Policy, November 25, 2021
Review of “The War Scare That Wasn’t: Able Archer 83 and the Myths of the Second Cold War” by Simon Miles in H-Diplo, March 2021
“China’s Nuclear Program Baffled Soviet Intelligence,” in Foreign Policy, October 21, 2020
“Xi Jinping’s Tiananmen Family Lessons,” in Foreign Policy, June 4, 2020
Review of Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy: Religion, Politics, and Strategy by Dmitry Adamsky in H-Diplo, April 2020
“What Xi Jinping Learned—And Didn’t Learn—From His Father About Xinjiang,” in The Diplomat, November 26, 2019
“Chinese Society amid Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: The Roots and Nature of the Tragedy: Commentary by Joseph Torigian,” in Journal of Cold War Studies (Spring 2019), 21 (2): 177–88
“Elite Politics and Foreign Policy in China from Mao to Xi,” in Revolution or Evolution? Xi Jinping and the Future of China’s Foreign Policy, Brookings Institution, January 22, 2019.
“Don’t Count on China to Rein in North Korea. Here’s Why,” in Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, February 17, 2017
“The Shadow of Deng Xiaoping on Chinese Elite Politics,” in War on the Rocks, January 30, 2017
“Khrushchev’s Fate and China’s Future,” in The Diplomat, November 24, 2016
“Mass Atrocity Monday: Tiananmen Square,” in Justice in Conflict blog, June 6, 2016

CONFERENCES

Canadian Association for Security Intelligence Studies 2024 | November 2024
Panelist on “Future of Geopolitics”
Hoover History Lab Symposium on China and Russia (Stanford) | June 2024
Organizer, moderator, and panelist
2024 SCCEI China Conference (Stanford) | May 2024
Panelist on “Historical Insights and Lessons for China from the Soviet Union”
Hoover Institution History Working Group Symposium (Stanford) | May 2024
Presented “Sino-Russian Relations in Historic Context: Ideology, Agency, and Interests”
Cling Conference 2024 (Georgetown) | April 2024
Panelist on “Domestic Sources of Chinese Policymaking”
Bicoastal China Fellows UnConference (Stanford) | August 2024
Panelist on “The Preservation Profession”
International Studies Association | March 2024
Presented “Sino-Russian Relations in Historic Context: Ideology, Agency, and Interests”
“The 1969 Crisis: Confusion, Contingency, and China” (presented by David Logan)
Global Trends (Stanford) | January 2024
Discussant on Chinese power; presenter on Chinese “soft” power
Dahrendorf Conference (Stanford) | August 2023
Panelist on “War in Ukraine”
International Studies Association | March 2023
Discussant on “Contested Peripheries: High-Stakes International Politics in Frontier Domains”
Princeton University Center for International Security Studies | February 2023
Panelist on “Lessons from the War in Ukraine”
University of Michigan Weiser Center for Emerging Democr. | October 2022
Panelist on “Flashpoint: 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party”
Hoover Institution Summer Workshop on Modern China and Taiwan | August 2022
Presented “Succession Politics and the Xi Family in the 1980s: The ‘Three Types of People,’ ‘Princelings,’ and Center-Provincial Relations in Hebei and Fujian”
University of California San Diego China Forum | July 2022
Presented on panel on Sino-Russian relations
Emerging Scholars on Emerging Technologies | April 2022
Discussant for paper
Presented on panel “The Content of Teaching Emerging Technologies”
China-Russia Relations: Peers, Allies, Competitors? (Georgetown) | March 2022
Panelist
The Wilson China Fellowship Conference | February 2022
Presented “Xi Jinping and Ideology”
Colloquium on Thirty Years of Tibet-China Dialogue Engagement (GW) | April 2022
Discussant
Toward Xi’s Third Term: China’s 20th Party Congress and Beyond | January 2022
Panelist
International Studies Association | April 2021
Presented “Echoes of June 1941 in March 1969: Intelligence and Escalation on the (Far) Eastern Front”
Association for Asian Studies March 2021
Presented “Echoes of June 1941 in March 1969: Intelligence and Escalation on the (Far) Eastern Front”
Chinese Archives in Crisis (Stanford) | December 2020
Presented “The Writing of ‘Biography of Xi Zhongxun’”
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies | November 2020
Presented “Echoes of June 1941 in March 1969: Intelligence and Escalation on the (Far) Eastern Front”
Penn Center for the Study of Contemporary China | September 2020
Commentator on panel at (virtual) Conference on the Party at 100
China and the World: The Road Ahead (Global Insights) | September 2020
Panelist
Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research (SICAR) | August 2020
Participated in panel on doing research overseas
Hong Kong and Elsewhere Symposium (Hong Kong Studies Journal) | July 2020
Presented “Fathers and Sons—Hong Kong and Xi Jinping’s Father Xi Zhongxun”
CSIS | January 2020
Delegation to Taiwan following January 2020 elections
Stanton Foundation | October 2019
Presented “The 1969 Sino-Soviet Nuclear Crisis”
International Studies Association | March 2019
Presented “A State of Fever: The Civil-Military Relations of the Nuclear (and Rocket) Revolution in the USSR”
Princeton-Humboldt | March 2019
Presented on post-Stalin and Mao transitions at Conference “Comparing Dictatorships in Transition”
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University | March 2019
Presented “China with a Special Focus on the Xi Family”
Harvard University Weatherhead Center | November 2018
Participant in Harvard International Security Cluster
China Since the Cultural Revolution (Wilson Center) | October 2018
Presented on Xi Zhongxun at Conference
APSA | August 2018
Presented “The Civil-Military Relations of Tiananmen Square”
The Society of Historians for American Foreign Relations | June 2018
Presented “Khrushchev and the Bomb”
Tianwen lianhe xuehui wenge bowuguan chouwei hui (Tianwen Lianhe Society Cultural Revolution Museum Preparatory Committee) | June 2018
Presented “Did the Gang of Four Have Their Own Ideology?” (In Chinese)
Association for Asian Studies | March 2018
Presented “Problems with Factions in Chinese Politics: The Case of Chen Yun”
Brookings-Carnegie-Tobin | January 2018
Presented at Workshop on Policy Implications of New Research in Politics and International History
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies | November 2017
Participated in panel “New Opportunities in the Russian Archives”
Stanford Dialogue | August 2016–December 2019
Note-taker for meetings between American, Chinese, and Russian retired military officers on strategic stability
Tobin Project | March 2017–September 2018
Participated in Tobin Project on Nuclear Threat Assessment
Hoover Institution Workshop on Authoritarian Regimes | July 2016
“Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles and the Fate of Three Revolutions”
Stanford Nuclear Youth Forum with MEPhI May 2016
Participated in conference in Moscow with Russian nuclear experts
Clements Center, UT Austin | July 2015
Participant in Summer Seminar in History and Statecraft
International Studies Association | March 2015
Presented “Scientific Realism and Qualitative Methods”
SICAR | Summer 2012
Spent one week at seminar on archives at George Washington University
International Studies Association | March 2012
Presented “Chinese Civil-Military Relations and the Roots of Political Change”
International Studies Association | March 2011
Chaired panel: “Reassessing Power Transitions”
Presented “The Rhetoric of Rise”
New Era Foreign Policy Conference | March 2010
Participated in two day workshop for young scholars interested in policy issues

INVITED TALKS

University College Dublin | October 2024
Book chapter on “Princeling Politics” from The Party’s Interests Come First
Global Conference on New Sinology (Delhi) | September 2024
Keynote: Xi Jinping’s Leadership Psychology
Political Economy Series (National University of Singapore, Hong Kong Baptist University, National Taiwan University, and the China Europe International Business School) | September 2024
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Osaka School of International Public Policy | July 2024
The “New” and “Old” in Xi Jinping as Chinese Leader
Kyoto University July 2024
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
YCAPS Community Conversation Series (Sasebo) | June 2024
“The Putin-Xi Partnership: Historical Context and Implications for the International Community”
Keio University June 2024
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
National Institute for Defense Studies (Tokyo) | June 2024
“The formation of Xi Jinping”
“Xi Jinping in historic context”
CISAC (Stanford) | March 2024
“The 1969 Crisis: Confusion, Contingency, and China” (with David Logan)
Illinois Global Institute (Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) | March 2024
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Emory University | March 2024
“Sino-Russian Relations in Historic Context: Ideology, Agency, and Interests”
FACES (Stanford) | February 2024
“Chinese elite politics and ideology”
Social Science Affinity Group (Princeton) | February 2024
“Accessing Information from Countries with Authoritarian Regimes”
Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China | November 2023
“Decoding Chinese Politics”
Stanford China Social Science Workshop | October 2023
“Xi Zhongxun and June 4”
Asia Society (San Francisco) | October 2023
“Drawing Back the Curtain: An Executive Roundtable on the Complexities of Chinese Politics”
Council on Foreign Relations Study Group | October 2023
“China-Russia Relations”
State Department Foreign Service Institute | September 2023
“History of Chinese Elite Politics”
State Department | September 2023
Consultant on Sino-Russian Relations
Centre for Contemporary China Studies (Indian Foreign Min.) | July 2023
“Sino-Russian relations”
Tibet Policy Institute (Dharamsala) | May 2023
“Chinese Politics under Xi Jinping”
Carnegie India
“Sino-Russian Relations in Historic Context: Ideology, Agency, and Interests”
Centre for Social and Economic Progress (Delhi) | May 2023
“The ‘New’ and ‘Old’ in Xi Jinping as a Chinese Leader”
Great Decisions (Vermont) | May 2023
“US-China Relations”
Wilson Center Asia Program, Kissinger Institute, and HAPP | April 2023
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
US-China Commission | April 2023
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Harvard University Fairbank Center | March 2023
“Succession Politics and the Xi Family in the 1980s: The ‘Three Types of People,’ ‘Princelings,’ and Center-Provincial Relations in Hebei and Fujian”
George Washington University USCSSO Spring Conference | March 2023
Featured speaker on Xi Jinping and Chinese politics
US Consulate in Shanghai | February 2023
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Rutgers University Center for Chinese Studies | February 2023
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Philadelphia World Trade Center | December 2022
Briefing on Chinese politics
King’s College London Centre for Grand Strategy | November 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
University of San Francisco Center for Asia Pacific Studies | October 2022
“Sino-Russian Relations in Historic Context: Ideology, Agency, and Interests”
Clements Center, UT Austin | October 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Council on Foreign Relations | October 2022
Virtual Roundtable: “The Past as a Prelude to Xi Jinping’s Next Five Years in Power” (with Victor Shih)
Profs and Pints | October 2022
“Understanding China’s Leader”
Yale MacMillan Center and International Security Studies | September 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Duke Sanford School | September 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
US State Department | September 2022
Consultant on Russia/Ukraine conflict
University of Michigan | August 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Lowy Institute | July 2022
The Rise and Rise of Xi Jinping
University of Melbourne | July 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Australian DFAT China Seminar Series | July 2022
“What Makes Xi Jinping Tick?”
University of Sydney | June 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Australian National University | June 2022
Seminar Series with four talks: Book talk on Prestige Manipulation and Coercion, “Researching Elite Politics in China,” “Sino-Russian Relations in Historic Context: Ideology, Agency and Interests,” and “The ‘New’ and ‘Old’ in Xi Jinping as a Chinese Leader”
Asia Society (Sydney) | June 2022
“Holding the Party Line: Xi Jinping and the Limits of Power” (executive briefing)
National Foundation for Australia-China Relations | June 2022
“Xi Jinping and Elite Politics in China”
Foreign Correspondent’s Club of China | April 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
Bush School, Texas A&M | April 2022
Book talk on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion
American Chamber of Commerce in the PRC | March 2022
Panelist on “As Far as the Eye Can See: Looking Ahead to Xi’s Third Term” (China Business Conference)
State University of New York at Albany | March 2022
Presented “Sino-Russian Relations in Historic Context: Ideology, Agency, and Interests”
Wilson Center | June 2021
Commentator for talk by Jeremy Brown on his new book June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989
Global Affairs Canada | February 2021
Presented on hundredth anniversary of Chinese Communist Party on panel with Professor Timothy Cheek
Paul Tsai China Center, Yale University | November 2020
Presented “Elite Politics in the Chinese Communist Party: Deng Xiaoping, the Xi Family, and the Limits of Collective Leadership”
SIS Continuity Workshop (American University) | October 202
Presented on use of digital archives in COVID era
CSIS China Policy Workshop Series | August 2020
Presented on how to analyze Chinese elite politics
Faculty of Social Science, Oslo University | December 2019
“The Scholar as Detective”
“State of Fever: The Civil-Military Relations of the Nuclear Revolution in the USSR”
Center for Security Studies, ETH, Zurich | December 2019
“State of Fever: The Civil-Military Relations of the Nuclear Revolution in the USSR”
SIS Historical International Studies Faculty Research Cluster | October 2019
“Xi Jinping’s Father Xi Zhongxun and Chinese Communist Party Policies in Tibet and Xinjiang in the 1980s”
East China Normal University, Shanghai | May 2019
Two talks (in Chinese): “Hua Guofeng” and “Chen Yun in the 1980s”
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at AU | March 2019
“China with a Special Focus on the Xi Family”
Comm. of the 30th Parinirvana Ann. of 10th Panchen Rinpoche | January 2019
“The Relationship between the 10th Panchen Lama and Xi Zhongxun”
AU Center for Asian Studies and Complex Gov. Cluster | October 2018
“Xi Jinping’s Father and the Chinese Revolution”
Asia-Pacific Nuclear History Institute (Wilson Center) | March 2018
“Khrushchev and the Bomb”
USC Center for International Studies | February 2018
“Explaining North Korean Regime Resiliency: Kim Il-sung and the Partisan Legacy”
Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program | November 2017
“China’s History of Failed Interventions in North Korean Elite Politics”
Stanford Russian History Kruzhok | March 2016
“Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union: The Cases of Beria and the Anti-Party Group”
CISAC (Stanford) | February 2016
“Communist Coups: Authoritarianism and the Fate of Three Revolutions”
SICAR | May 2015
“How to Conduct Archival Research”
George Washington University ISCS | March 2015
“Cleaning Up the Revolution: The Rise of Deng Xiaoping 1977–1981”

MEDIA

Quoted in “Diaries of Mao’s Secretary at the Center of a Legal Battle Over the History of Modern China,” NBC News, August 25, 2024
Quoted in “The Diary Beijing Doesn’t Want the Public to Read,” The World (radio), August 20, 2024
Quoted in “‘Monument to History’ Battle Between US and China Over Future of Mao’s Secretary’s Diary,” The Guardian, August 18, 2024
Quoted in “China’s Vanished Foreign Minister Casts a Long Shadow,” Politico, June 20, 2024
Quoted in “35 Years after Tiananmen, China’s Conduct Again Triggers Alarm,” Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2024
Quoted in “Putin Concludes a Trip to China by Emphasizing Its Strategic and Personal Ties to Russia,” AP, May 17, 2024
Interviewed on BBC World Service (radio) on Sino-Russian relations, May 16, 2024
Quoted in “Putin Is Putting His Bromance with Xi on Full Display—But China Has Reason to Be Wary,” Business Insider, May 16, 2024
Quoted in “How China’s Political Clans Might Determine Its Future,” The Economist, April 4, 2024
Quoted in “Xi’s One-Man Rule Over China’s Economy Is Spurring Unrest,” Bloomberg, February 29, 2024
Interviewed on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion, published in Center for Advanced China Research, November 14, 2023
Quoted in “China’s Xi, in Need of a Win, Appears Ready to Engage with Biden,” Washington Post, November 14, 2023
Quoted in “Xi’s Graft Crackdown Is Set to Snare Record Number of Top Officials,” Bloomberg, November 13, 2023
Quoted in “Behind Public Assurances, Xi Jinping Has Spread Grim Views on U.S.,” New York Times, November 13, 2023
Quoted in “Reactions to Death of Chinese Ex-Premier Li Keqiang,” Reuters, October 27, 2023
Quoted in “Xi Faces ‘Delicate Political Moment’ in Handling Grief Over Li,” Bloomberg, October 27, 2023
Quoted in “Former Chinese Premier Dies Aged 68 from Heart Attack,” The Times, October 27, 2023
Quoted in “Li Keqiang, Chinese Premier Eclipsed by Xi Jinping, Dies at 68,” New York Times, October 26, 2023
Quoted in “Li Keqiang, China’s Former Premier, Dies Suddenly at 68,” Financial Times, October 26, 2023
Quoted in “China Removes Li Shangfu as Defense Minister, Who Was Out of Public Eye for 2 Months,” NPR, October 23, 2023
Interviewed on Democracy Podcast, September 5, 2023
Quoted in “Xi Rebuilt the Military to His Liking. Now a Shake-Up Threatens Its Image,” New York Times, August 7, 2023
Quoted in “After Ousting a Top Official, China Erases Him and Evades Questions,” New York Times, July 27, 2023
Interviewed in “One Good Text,” Semafor, July 26, 2023
Quoted in “A Familiar Face for the US as China’s Wang Returns as Foreign Minister,” Reuters, July 25, 2023
Quoted in “China Replaces Missing Foreign Minister Qin Gang,” Financial Times, July 25, 2023
Quoted in “China Replaces Foreign Minister after Mysterious Absence,” Bloomberg, July 25, 2023
Interviewed in “Three Minutes With,” Politico, July 6, 2023
Quoted in “A Glimpse of a Different Russia,” Financial Times, July 1, 2023
Quoted in “The Paralysis of Power,” The New Statesman, June 28, 2023
Quoted in “China’s ‘No-Limits’ Partnership with Russia Shaken by Mutiny,” Christian Science Monitor, June 27, 2023
Quoted in “Putin Sent Xi Birthday Greetings. Here Was the Real Message,” New York Times, June 15, 2023
Interviewed on StratNews Global (television)
Quoted in “China and Russia Have Promised to Boost Trade. Can They?,” Washington Post, May 26, 2023
Research referenced in “Xi Jinping’s Succession Problem—and China’s,” Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2023
Interviewed in “China Will Want to Make India’s U.S. Ties Costly, Says Joseph Torigian,” The Hindu, May 6, 2023
Quoted in “O que está por trás da aliança entre China e Rússia,” BBC Brasil, March 23, 2023
Quoted in “China and Russia: Explaining a Long, Complicated Friendship,” AP, March 22, 2023
Quoted on “The World” with Daniel Ofman, March 20, 2023
Quoted in “Putin and Xi Call Each Other a ‘Dear Friend.’ But Their Main Common Cause Is the U.S.,” LA Times, March 21, 2023
Quoted in “Putin and Xi’s Big Moscow Meeting, Briefly Explained,” Vox, March 20, 2023
Interviewed on BBC Newsday (television), March 20, 2023
Quoted in “Xi Jinping Meeting Vladimir Putin in Boost for Isolated Russia Leader,” AP, March 20, 2023
Quoted in “Xi’s Embrace of Putin Dents His Chances of Playing Peacemaker on Ukraine,” Bloomberg, March 19, 2023
Quoted in “Xi to Visit Russia for First Time Since Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine,” Bloomberg, March 17, 2023
Quoted in “China Has Weapons to Give Russia an Edge in Ukraine—Why Hasn’t It?,” Christian Science Monitor, March 15, 2023
Interviewed on BBC Newshour (radio), February 24, 2023
Interviewed on NBC, February 23, 2023
Interviewed on NRD (German public radio), February 23, 2023
Interviewed on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (television), February 23, 2023
Interviewed on Drum Tower podcast (The Economist), February 27, 2023
Quoted in “China’s Palace Politics: Xi Jinping Loyalists Compete for Power,” Financial Times, January 24, 2023
Quoted in “Waiting for Xie Feng: Decoding China’s New Ambassador,” Politico, January 19, 2023
Interviewed on Bu mingbai boke podcast, January 14, 2023
Interviewed on SiriusXM Business Radio Wharton Business Daily, December 12, 2022
Contribution included in “Jiang Zemin, 1926–2022”: A ChinaFile Conversation, December 2, 2022
Interviewed in “Joseph Torigian on Making Sense of Chinese Politics,” The Wire, November 20, 2022
Quoted in “China Affirms Ties with Russia But Signals That It’s Becoming More Guarded About the War,” New York Times, November 16, 2022
Interviewed on All Things Policy podcast, November 7, 2022
Interviewed on DW News (on 20th Party Congress), October 31, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping Has Surrounded Himself with Loyalists,” The Economist, October 27, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s New Leadership Line-Up Spells Trouble for Bilateral Ties,” Politico, October 27, 2022
Interviewed on “Episode 23: What China’s National Party Congress Means for the World,” What China Wants podcast, October 27, 2022
Quoted in “‘Un país fuerte debe tener un ejército fuerte’: 3 lecciones que sacó Xi Jinping del colapso de la URSS (y cómo marcan su gobierno en China),” BBC News, October 23, 2022
Quoted in “Olaf Scholz Won’t Dump China. Will Europe Ever Learn?,” Politico, October 23, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s Historic Bid at the Communist Party Congress,” New Yorker, October 23, 2022
Quoted in “The Omnipotence of China’s Xi Jinping,” Der Spiegel, October 20, 2022
Quoted in “New Title for Xi Stokes Concern of a Mao-Style Personality Cult,” Bloomberg, October 19, 2022
Quoted in “What a Third Term for Xi Jinping Could Mean for China and the World,” NPR, October 19, 2022
Quoted in “The Pomp, Pageantry and Paranoia of China’s Communist Party Congress,” Washington Post, October 19, 2022
Quoted in “US-China Ties Hit New Low, Thaw in Now Frozen Ties Unlikely in Near Future,”
AFP, August 6, 2022
Quoted in “How to Build a Democratic Dictatorship,” The Telegraph, October 17, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Doubles Down in Triumphalist Congress Speech,” AFP, October 17, 2022
Quoted in “Up First,” NPR, October 17, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Jinping Stakes Out Ambitions, with Himself at the Center,” Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s Quest for Control Over China Targets Even Old Friends,” Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2022
Quoted in “China is Holding the Most Important Meeting in Its Political Calendar. Here’s What You Need to Know,” NBC News, October 16, 2022
Quoted in “How Xi Jinping Transformed from Privileged Child to Fierce Supporter of the Communist Party,” CNN (video), October 16, 2022
Quoted in “China Party Congress: Tracing Xi’s Rise to Power as He Looks to a Third Term,” Hindustan Times, October 15, 2022
Interviewed on “Xi Jinping Opens Chinese Communist Party Congress,” BBC Newshour (radio), October 16, 2022
Quoted in “A Sense of Crisis Has Defined Xi’s Rule. It Will Shape China Well into the Future,” CNN, October 14, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Looks to 3rd 5-Year Term as Communist Party Meets,” AP, October 14, 2022
Quoted in “Chinese Museum Celebrates History of Communist Party Founding,” The World, October 13, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Jinping Problem,” Financial Times, October 12, 2022
Quoted in “Analysis: How China’s Xi Accumulated Power, and Why It Matters in a Third Term,” Reuters, October 11, 2022
Quoted in “Who Is China’s President Xi Jinping?,” RFI, October 7, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s Quest for Total Control of China Is Just Getting Started,” Washington Post, October 5, 2022
Interviewed on Mingjing (Chinese language internet television), October 1, 2022
Quoted throughout “The Prince,” The Economist podcast series, September 28, 2022
Quoted in “The Unravelling of Vladimir Putin,” New Statesman, September 28, 2022
Quoted in “Chinese Politics Has Become Even More of a Black Box under Xi Jinping,” Globe and Mail, September 26, 2022
Quoted in “United Front: Understanding China and Russia’s Deepening Alliance,” Christian Science Monitor, September 20, 2022
Interview on Departures podcast, September 19, 2022
Quoted in “Xi and Putin Meet and Pledge to ‘Inject Stability’ in the World,” Washington Post, September 15, 2022
Quoted in “When Putin and Xi Meet, It Is Beijing Coming Out on Top,” NBC News, September 15, 2022
Quoted in “Challenges for Russia and China Test a ‘No-Limits’ Friendship,” New York Times, September 13, 2022
Quoted in “China-Russia Bond Tightens As Moscow Sees Ukraine Setbacks,” AFP, September 13, 2022
Quoted in “Xi’s Next Power Play May Be Age Limits for Everyone But Himself,” Bloomberg, September 12, 2022
Interviewed on New Books Network podcast, September 7, 2022
Quoted in “Chinese React to Gorbachev’s Death, Accuse Him of Selling Out to Russia,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022
Teaching mentioned in “Xi Jinping’s Radical Secrecy,” Atlantic Monthly, August 21, 2022
Quoted in “US-China Ties Hit New Low, Thaw in Now Frozen Ties Unlikely in Near Future,” AFP, August 6, 2022
Interviewed on “Elite Power Struggles in the CCP and USSR,” ChinaTalk podcast, July 22, 2022
Interviewed on “Elite Power Struggles after Stalin and Mao,” The Diplomat, July 18, 2022
Quoted in “China and Russia: Exploring Ties Between Two Authoritarian Powers,” CFR Backgrounder, June 14, 2022
Quoted in “Is China Slowly Turning Its Back to Russia?,” Newsweek, June 9, 2022
Quoted in “Beijing Sticks to Xi’s Covid-19 Stance While Endorsing Premier as Economic Fixer,” Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2022
Quoted in “‘All the Power Is in His Hands’: Why Xi Jinping Remains Supreme,” Financial Times, June 2, 2022
Interviewed on “How to Win a Power Struggle,” Historically Thinking podcast, May 23, 2022
Quoted in “In Xi’s Big Year, Political Price of China’s Pandemic Policy Climbs,” AFP, May 22, 2022
Quoted in “Political Stakes High as Beijing Responds to Virus Outbreak,” AP, April 29, 2022
Interviewed on “Elite Purges in Marxist-Leninist Regimes,” Pekingology podcast, CSIS, April 20222
Quoted in “Warum China als Friedensmakler ausfällt,” Der Spiegel, April 14, 2022
Quoted in “Bristling Against the West, China Rallies Domestic Sympathy for Russia,” New York Times, April 4, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Ukraine Calculus: Understanding China’s Position in the Ukraine War,” The Wire, March 27, 2022
Quoted in “Personal Ties That Bind: How Xi-Putin Relationship Has Evolved,” Aljazeera, March 18, 2022
Interview on The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen, April 29, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Risks Leaving China Isolated by Backing Putin to Counter US,” Bloomberg, March 21, 2002
Quoted in “La moderata ambiguità di Xi Jinping sulla Guerra,” Il Manifesto, March 16, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Goal with Putin Is to Resist U.S. Without Economic Pain,” Bloomberg, March 15, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping Isn’t Siding with Putin over Ukraine,” Business Insider, March 10, 2022
Interview on KCBS Radio, March 9, 2022
Quoted in “The Battle for Ukraine Could Test the Limits of Closer Ties Between China and Russia,” NPR, March 4, 2022
Quoted in “Ukraine Invasion Tests the Ties That Bind Putin and Xi,” New York Times, February 28, 2022
Quoted in “Dilemmat: Hur länge vågar Kina stötta Putin?,” Svenska Dagbladet, February 27, 2022
Quoted in “Why China Hasn’t Picked a Side in the Ukraine-Russia Fight—Yet,” The Grid, February 24, 2022
Quoted in “Beijing Weighs How Far to Go in Backing Putin on Ukraine,” Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2022
Interviewed on “The History Behind Growing China-Russia Relations: A Conversation with Dr. Joseph Torigian,” ChinaPower podcast, CSIS, February 2022
Conducted interview of Chinese historian in “Lin Biao: What Really Happened?,” ChinaTalk podcast, February 10, 2022
Quoted in “The Memo: China’s Olympics Get Underway Beneath Shadow of Abuses,” The Hill, February 4, 2022
Quoted in “As Putin Heads to Beijing, Russia and China’s Stronger Ties Are a Headache for the U.S.,” Washington Post, February 1, 2022
Quoted in “Peu cultivé, arrogant et brutal: qui est vraiment Xi Jinping, le nouveau Mao qui tient la Chine sous sa coupe?,” L’Obs, January 29, 2022
Quoted in “How Collapse of the Soviet Union Still Weighs on Chinese Leaders’ Minds 30 Years On,” South China Morning Post, January 1, 2022
Research featured on Mingjing television (in Chinese), December 26, 2021
Interview published on SIS News, December 3, 2021 (on article “A New Case for the Study of Individual Events in Political Science”)
Research featured on Mingjing television (in Chinese), December 1, 2021
Quoted in “How Xi Jinping Is Rewriting China’s History to Put Himself at the Center,” Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2021
Quoted in “To Steer China’s Future, Xi Is Rewriting Its Past,” New York Times, November 7, 2021
Quoted in “The Diary Duel,” The Wire: China, September 26, 2021
Quoted in “Rescuing China’s Muzzled Past, One Footnote at a Time (There Are 2,421),” New York Times, July 26, 2021
Quoted in “Chinese Tourists Throng ‘Red Tourism’ Sites To Mark Communist Party Centennial,” NPR, July 21, 2021
Interview in Il Manifesto (Il Senso di Xi Jinping per la Predestinazione) for special issue on centenary of CCP, July 14, 2021
Interview on Overnights with Trevor Chappell, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 6, 2021
Quote included in “De Mao à Xi, la Chine Célèbre son Siècle de Parti Communiste,” Le Devoir (AFP), June 28, 2021
Quote included in “Tourist Mao: Chinese Flock to Communist Party Historic Sites as Country Prepares to Celebrate 100th Anniversary,” The Telegraph, June 27, 2021
Quote included in “Xi Jinping’s Father and His Trip to Australia Had a Hand in the Birth of China’s Tech Giants,” Australian Broadcasting Corporation, June 23, 2021
Quote included in “Episode 3: Wolf Warrior,” China Rising podcast, Global News (Canada), June 11, 2021
Quote included in “China Brazenly Boasts of ‘Aborted’ Revolution to Mark 32 Years Since Tiananmen Square Massacre,” US News and World Report, June 4, 2021
Interview on June 4, 1989, Voice of America (in Chinese), June 3, 2021
Quote included on “Episode 1,” China, If You’re Listening podcast, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, May 31, 2021
Quote included in “Huawei Calls on an Old Friend, Russia, as U.S. Sanctions Bite Down,” Washington Post, May 28, 2021
Research referred to in “Ai Weiwei y Xi Jinping: cara y ceca de la China contemporánea,” Libertad Digital, March 19, 2021
Quote included in “Why Are There No Biographies of Xi Jinping?,” The Atlantic, January 30, 2021
Quote included in “The Red Capitalist,” The Wire: China, January 10, 2021
Quote included in “How the U.S. Misread China’s Xi: Hoping for a Globalist, It Got an Autocrat,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2020
Interview on “Xi Dada and Daddy: Power, the Party and the President,” The Little Red Podcast, November 1, 2020
Quote included in “Zhongguo renyi jubu weixie ri zeng haiwai meiguo gongmin fenfen huiguo bi xian,” Voice of America (in Chinese), October 23, 2020
Quote included in “Dreams of a Red Emperor: The Relentless Rise of Xi Jinping,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2020
Quote included in “In City Where China Welcomed the World, Xi Prepares for a Colder One,” New York Times, October 14, 2020
Quote included in “China’s Xi Lays Out Plan to Build Shenzhen into Global Rival to Troubled Hong Kong,” Washington Post, October 14, 2020
Quote included in “China’s Mealtime Appeal Amid Food Supply Worries: Don’t Take More Than You Can Eat,” Washington Post, October 5, 2020
Interview on Hong Kong, Voice of America (in Chinese), July 2, 2020
Quote included in “In China-U.S. Showdown, Beijing’s Steely Propagandist Sharpens Her Attack,” Washington Post, May 21, 2020
Quote included in “In China’s Crisis, Xi Sees a Crucible to Strengthen His Rule,” New York Times, May 20, 2020
Quote included in “China Investigates Property Tycoon Who Criticised Government Over Coronavirus Outbreak,” The Telegraph, April 8, 2020
Quote included in “Chinese Mogul Faces Probe for Essay Critical of President Xi’s Coronavirus Handling,” Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2020
Interview on Xi Jinping’s father, Mingjing television (in Chinese), February 28, 2020
Interview on Deng Xiaoping, Mingjing television (in Chinese), February 27, 2020
Interview on Xi Jinping’s father and Xinjiang, Mingjing television (in Chinese), December 4, 2019
Quote included in “For China’s Xi, the Hong Kong Crisis Is Personal,” Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2019
Quote included in “Why Taiwan Is Unfinished Business for Xi Jinping,” Financial Times, September 22, 2019
Research referenced in “As Protests Rock Hong Kong, Xi Jinping’s View of History Shows He Will Dig In,” New York Times, July 3, 2019
Interviewed on The Little Red Podcast, June 2, 2019
Quote included in “Deng Xiaoping’s Son Urges China to ‘Know Its Place’ in Counterpoint to Xi’s Expansionist Foreign Policy,” The Telegraph, October 30, 2018

AWARDS

American University | May 2023
School of International Service Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity & Other Professional Contributions Award
American University | April 2022
Academic Achievement Awards for Outstanding Performance or Innovation in Online Teaching
APSIA | November 2021
APSIA Junior Faculty Grant
Wilson Center Asia Program | March 2021 to March 2022
China Fellow
American University | March 2019
Dean of Academic Affairs International Travel Award
Spent one month in China collecting material and conducting interviews
Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation | February–June 2016
Fellow and winner of Goldsmith Research Award (April 2016)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | June and July 2013
International Science and Technology Initiatives China Seed Fund
Spent two months in Beijing and Hong Kong interviewing party historians and collecting dissertation material
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | June 2012
Center for International Studies Summer Study Grant
Spent one month in Beijing interviewing party historians and collecting dissertation material

TEACHING

Advisor to masters student writing Substantial Research Paper | Fall 2021, Summer 2022
SIS “Teaching Triangle” Spring 2021
Teaching featured in “How Graphic Novels Can Inform Military Readiness,” Kelly Gardner, School of International Service News | August 22, 2019
Teaching featured in “Sources Say,” Andrew Erickson, American University Magazine | March 2019
School of International Service, American University (as instructor)
“The Revisionists: Chinese and Russian Politics and Foreign Policy” (juniors and seniors)
“The Revisionists: Chinese and Russian Politics and Foreign Policy” (masters students)
“The Scholar as Detective: How to Find and Analyze the Best Sources” (sophomore methods course
“Conflict and the Graphic Novel” (first year seminar)
“Qualitative Methods” (PhD students)
Stanford University (as Hoover History Lab teaching assistant) | March 2024
Global Futures: History, Statecraft, Systems (Stephen Kotkin and Condoleezza Rice)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Fall 2012
Teaching assistant for “American Foreign Policy”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Spring 2013
Teaching assistant for “Graphic Novels and Political Violence”

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

American University | Fall 2022
Search committee for two Changemaker postdocs
American University | Fall 2022 to present
PhD Committee
American University | October 2021 to present
Member of Coordinating Committee
American University | June 2021 to present
Member of Comparative and Regional Studies program
American University | October 2020 to present
Affiliate of Center for Security, Innovation, and New Technology
American University | September 2020 to Spring 2022
Head of Political Violence and Security Cluster
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Fall 2011 and Fall 2012
Job Search Committee
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Fall 2011 and Spring 2012
Graduate Student Working Group Coordinator

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Journal of Cold War Studies, International Security, Journal of Historical Sociology, China Review, Security Studies, Journal of Strategic Studies, History of Political Thought, Journal of Contemporary China, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Texas National Security Review, Problems of Post-Communism
Reviewer