Andrew S. Erickson

Andrew S. Erickson, review of Xiaobing Li, China’s Mahan: Admiral Liu Huaqing and the Rise of the Modern Chinese Navy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2026); in The China Quarterly (2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741026102471

 
A renowned and prolific historian of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Xiaobing Li once again delivers a uniquely illuminating account, this time with […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, Review of Brian C.H. Fong, U.S.-China Rivalry: Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Edinburgh University Press, November 2024); in Naval War College Review 78.2 (Summer/Fall 2025): 145–46.

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US-China Rivalry: Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific, by Brian C. H. Fong. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2024. […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, Review of Brian C.H. Fong, U.S.-China Rivalry: Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Edinburgh University Press, November 2024), 13–21; in Il Hyun Cho, ed., “The Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-4 on Fong, US-China Rivalry,” H-Diplo Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum Review Roundtable with Alice D. Ba, Andrew S. Erickson, Yuan-kang […]

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Honored to publish lead book review in new double issue of Naval War College Review (combined Summer and Autumn 2024 edition) marking the 140th anniversary of the Naval War College’s founding!
Here are concise assessments of Xiaobing Li’s tour de force, “China’s New Navy,” as well as Toshi Yoshihara’s magnum opus, “Mao’s Army Goes to Sea.” […]

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Blurbs
“Leading international relations scholars Brian Fong and Ja Ian Chong have edited a scholarly tour de force surveying one of the most important, enduring academic and policy issues. They and their well-chosen contributors elucidate today’s latest resurgence of great power competition around the world and in frontier domains. Read now, keep ready for reference!”
— Andrew […]

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Yanzhong Huang, Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Summary: China’s deepening health crisis reveals the fragility of the party-state and undercuts China’s ability to project influence internationally.
Watch for further information and related events at the Council on Foreign Relations!

Book description
Environmental degradation in China has […]

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Andrew S. Erickson; review of M. Taylor Fravel, Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since 1949 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019); Journal of Chinese Political Science 24.4 (December 2019): 701-02. (Online 30 August 2019).
Click here to access the full text of the review online.
The print version of the review is available here.
Just in time for the 70th anniversary […]

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Andrew S. Erickson; review of Anne-Marie Brady, China as a Polar Great Power (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017); Foreign Affairs 97.3 (May/June 2018): 208-09.
In this study of China’s efforts to become the only nation other than the United States capable of operating comprehensively in both the Arctic and Antarctica, Brady opens up a new frontier of […]

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Andrew S. Erickson; review of Boris Chertok, Rockets and People: Hot Days of the Cold War, Vol. 3 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2009); Naval War College Review 70.2 (Spring 2017): 151-53.
Click here for information on this volume and the others in the series. 
Download a full-text PDF here. 
Volume 3 in four-volume series written by Boris Chertok and […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, “Managing U.S.-China Relations? Challenging. Picking a Good Guidebook? Easy: The China Challenge,” The National Interest, 23 November 2015.
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Book Review: A unique window into the U.S.-China relationship that should not be missed.
Rigorous, measured, readable scholarship is always in insufficient supply generally. It is particularly […]

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I stand by my blurb most enthusiastically: “Uncertainty and limited data have left too much of PLA studies an artisanal hodgepodge. Peter Mattis helps bring the field into the information age with this invaluable resource. Required reading for all serious analysts of China security and students of qualitative methodology.”
Peter Mattis, Analyzing the Chinese Military: A Review […]

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Andrew S. Erickson; review of Alan M. Wachman, Why Taiwan? Geostrategic Rationales for China’s Territorial Integrity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007); Naval War College Review 68.3 (Summer 2015): 167-69.
Tufts Fletcher School Professor Alan Wachman was a giant in the China, East Asian studies, and international relations field who remains sorely missed following his untimely death […]

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Bradley Perrett, “China Strongly Pushing Cruise Missile Capability,” Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, 22 May 2014, 4.
China probably has several thousand increasingly effective anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), while its stock and quality of land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs) are also growing, according to the authors of a new study on the weapons programs.
If China can overcome […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, review of Charles Horner, Rising China and Its Postmodern Fate: Memories of Empire in a New Global Context (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2009), Naval War College Review, 63.2 (Spring 2010): 145-47.
This book connects China’s past, present, and future and places them in a larger, evolving context. Horner’s work is nothing […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, review of Boris Chertok, Rockets and People: Creating a Rocket Industry, Vols. 1 and 2 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2005), Air & Space Power Journal, 23.3 (Fall 2009): 124-25.
In this initial two-volume set, Boris Chertok chronicles Soviet air and space development through approximately 1960, drawing on his six decades of experience as one of […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, review of Roger Cliff et al., Entering the Dragon’s Lair: Chinese Antiaccess Strategies and Their Implications for the United States (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2007), Naval War College Review 62.1 (Winter 2009): 150-51.
This study has already attracted widespread attention from the policy community and media, for good reason. The U.S. military appears poised to […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, review of Roy Kamphausen and Andrew Scobell, eds., Right-Sizing the People’s Liberation Army: Exploring the Contours of China’s Military (Carlisle, PA: Army War College, 2007), Naval War College Review 61.4 (Autumn 2008): 152-53.
This edited volume combines high-level inquiry into the larger purposes and dimensions of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reforms with fresh data that […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, review of Ronald O’Rourke, The Impact of Chinese Naval Modernization and the Future of the United States Navy (New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2006), Naval War College Review 61.1 (Winter 2008): 130-31.
Well written, succinct, and timely, this balanced assessment of Chinese naval weaknesses and strengths offers specific technological development and procurement alternatives to […]

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Andrew S. Erickson, “A Coming Confrontation With the U.S. Over Taiwan?” review of John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, Imagined Enemies: China Prepares for Uncertain War (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006), Naval War College Review 60.4 (Autumn 2007): 139-40.
This sophisticated Chinese-language research, based on numerous original sources and interviews, completes Lewis and Xue’s authoritative […]

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