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Alan M. Wachman

Associate Professor of International Politics

Education

AB, Harvard University
MALD, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Ph.D., Harvard University

Professional Activities

Professor Wachman was a Fellow in the “Program on Peace, Governance, and Development in East Asia” (2008-2009) as a guest lecturer at the East Asia Institute (Seoul), Keio University (Tokyo), and Peking University (Beijing) and has been an Associate in Research at The Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University (1997–present). He was the Coordinator, Taiwan Studies Workshop, Harvard University (1998-2001), served as President, China Institute in America (1995-97) and as the American Co-Director, Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies (PRC) (1993-95). He is a member of the editorial board of Asia Policy, China Security, and Issues and Studies: A Social Science Quarterly on China, Taiwan, and East Asian Affairs.

Biography

Alan M. Wachman is an associate professor of international politics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He teaches and writes about issues arising from China’s foreign relations, emphasizing links between diplomatic history and contemporary international security. He is currently completing a book about Mongolia’s national security in the context of emerging rivalries among great powers in Asia. His other books include Why Taiwan: Geostrategic Rationales for China’s Territorial Integrity (Stanford, 2007) and Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization (M.E. Sharpe 1994). Wachman has contributed articles to policy and academic journals in the U.S. and abroad and is on the editorial board of Asia Policy, China Security, and Issues and Studies. He has been awarded grants for research by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and the East West Center, and was a Fellow in the Program on Peace, Governance, and Development in East Asia as a guest lecturer at institutions in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo (2008-2009). Wachman served in New York as the president of China Institute in America (1995-1997) and was the American Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in the PRC (1993-1995). He has lived in Nanjing, Taipei and Taichung and travels regularly to Asia. Wachman received an A.B. in Fine Arts and an A.M. and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, as well as a master of arts in law and diplomacy from The Fletcher School.

Courses

Fall 2009

• DHP D270 - Sino-U.S. Relations Since 1900
• DHP D214m - Thesis research and writing module

Research Interests

My research has focused on China’s foreign relations, emphasizing links between diplomatic history and contemporary international security. As an extension of that central focus, I have been interested in the evolution of Sino-U.S. relations, cross-Taiwan strait relations, political developments on Taiwan, as well as in the implications for relations among states in the Pacific region of the geo-strategic friction between the U.S. and the PRC. I am in the midst of preparing a book about Mongolia’s foreign and security policies in the context of great power rivalries in Asia.

Selected Publications

Books

• Why Taiwan? Geostrategic Rationales for China’s Territorial Integrity (Stanford University Press, 2007).
• Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization (M.E. Sharpe, 1994).

Book Chapters

• “Did Abraham Lincoln Oppose Taiwan’s ‘Secession’ from China?” Chapter in Don H. Doyle, ed. Secession as an International Phenomenon. University of Georgia Press, (forthcoming).
• “Political Systems in East Asia: From a Great Unity (Da Tong) to a Greater Diversity”; Chapter in Lawrence Graham, Richard Farkas, Robert Grady, George Joffé, Donley Studlar, and Alan M. Wachman. The Politics of Governing: A Comparative Introduction. (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2006).
• “Constitutional Diplomacy: Taipei’s Pen, Beijing’s Sword” in Suzanne Ogden, Global Studies: China, Eleventh Edition. (McGraw Hill/Dushkin, 2005).
• “The United States and the Taiwan Quandary: How Much Does Chen Shui-bian’s Election Matter?” in Alagappa, Muthiah, ed. Taiwan Presidential Elections: Outcomes and Implications. (M.E. Sharpe, 2001).
• “Taiwan: Parent, Province, or Blackballed State?” in Lee Wei-chin, ed. Taiwan in Perspective. (Brill, 2000).
• “Competing Claims of Identity in Taiwan,” in Murray Rubinstein, ed., The Other Taiwan: 1945 to the Present, (M.E. Sharpe, 1994).
• “The Confucian Problematique: An Overview,” in Tu Wei-ming, Milan G. Hejtmanek and Alan Wachman, eds., The Confucian World Observed: A Contemporary Discussion of Confucian Humanism in East Asia, (University of Hawaii Press, 1992).

Articles and Other Publications

• “Thinking About a Healthy Military Balance in the Taiwan Strait,” Asia Policy 8 (July 2009) 25-32.
• “Mongolia’s Geopolitical Gambit: Preserving a Precarious Independence While Resisting ‘Soft Colonialism’,” EAI Fellows Program Working Paper Series No. 18, May 2009.
• “Old Thinking Dominates ‘New Thinking’,” China Security 5:1 (winter 2009) 71-77.
• “Taiwan, Republic of China: Overview,” in David Pong, ed. Encyclopedia of Modern China Volume 3. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2009, 527–529.
• “Don’t Forsake Mongolia,” Asia Policy 7 (January 2009) 57-59.
• “Ensnared by Beijing: Washington Succumbs to the PRC’s Diplomacy of Panic China Security 4:1 (winter 2008) 70-93.
• “Stamped Out! Carto-philatelic Evidence of the PRC’s Constructed Notion of Chinese Territory,” East Asia: An International Quarterly 22:2 (summer 2005).
• “La politique chinoise des États-Unis ou l’Amérique face à elle-même [a translation by the journal of “Mirror or Window? Visions of America Determine Views of China”], Politique Américaine 2 (summer 2005) 43–62. Reprinted in Monde Chinois 9 (winter 2006-2007) 73–87.
• “Constitutional Diplomacy: Taipei’s Pen, Beijing’s Sword,” in Taiwan’s Constitutional Reform: Domestic Inspiration and External Constraints. Asia Program Special Report No. 125. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institution (November 2004) 19–26.
• “Yiguo, liangzhi (one country, two systems),” in Davis, Edward, ed. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. New York: Routledge, 2004.
• “The Cold War of Words in Cross-Strait Relations,” Orbis 45:4 (Fall 2002) 695–711.
• “Credibility and the U.S. Defense of Taiwan: Nullifying the Notion of a ‘Taiwan Threat’,” Issues and Studies 38:1 (March 2002) 200–229.
• “Unbowed By History,” Boston Globe, (April 15, 2001) D1.
• “Does the Diplomacy of Shame Promote Human Rights in China?” Third World Quarterly 22:2 (2001) 257–281.
• Challenges and Opportunities in the Taiwan Strait: Defining America’s Role. Conference Report, China Policy Series 17. New York: National Committee on United States China Relations (January 2001).
• “Taiwan: Parent, Province, or Blackballed State?” Journal of Asian and African Studies 35:1 (Spring 2000) 184-203.
• “The ‘State-to-State’ Flap: Tentative Conclusions About Risk and Restraint in Diplomacy Across the Taiwan Straits” Harvard Asia Quarterly 4:1 (Winter 2000) 37-43.
• “The Empire’s New Clothes,” Free China Review 49:6 (June 1999) 48-55.
• “Words Matter, Mr. Clinton,” Far Eastern Economic Review (July 16, 1998) 55.

Book Reviews

• Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf. Strait Talk: Trust and U.S. Taiwan Relations in China’s Shadow (Harvard University Press, 2009), book jacket endorsement.
• Fravel, M. Taylor. Strong Borders, Secure Nation (Princeton University Press, 2008), book jacket endorsement.
• Erickson, Andrew S., Lyle J. Goldstein, William S. Murray, and Andrew R. Wilson, eds. China’s Future Nuclear Submarine Force. (Naval Institute Press, 2007), Naval War College Review 61:2 (spring 2008) 134-135.
• Edward Friedman, ed., China’s Rise, Taiwan’s Dilemmas and International Peace. London: Routledge, 2006, in Pacific Affairs 79:2 (July/August 2006).
• “Over-identifying with Identity,” a review of Melissa J. Brown, Is Taiwan Chinese? The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2004) in Issues and Studies 40:3/4 (September/December 2004) 470–476.
• Richard C. Bush, At Cross Purposes (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004) book jacket endorsement.
• Denny Roy, Taiwan: A Political History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003) in Journal of Asian Studies 63:1 (2004) 166–167.
• Paul Katz and Murray A. Rubenstein, eds., Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities (Palgrave, 2003), book jacket endorsement.
• Gary D. Rawnsley, Taiwan’s Informal Diplomacy and Propaganda (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000) in Journal of Asian Studies 60:4 (November 2001) 1171.
• Christopher Hughes, Taiwan and Chinese Nationalism: National Identity and Status in International Society (Routledge, 1998) in Journal of Oriental Studies 35:1 (1997 [sic: 1999]) 105-106.
• Murray Rubinstein, ed., Taiwan: A New History (M.E. Sharpe, 1999) in Journal of Asian Studies 58:4 (November 1999) 1119-1121.