Associated Fellow

Dr. 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.

Research Interests

China's diplomatic history and foreign relations, the diplomatic and security dimensions of Sino-U.S. relations, U.S. relations with Asia, cross-Taiwan strait relations, Mongolia's foreign relations, territorial disputes in Asia, ethics in international affairs.

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

• "Playing by or playing with the rules of UNCLOS? Recklessly riding the high horse of principle in pursuit of security and international influence," chapter in Peter A. Dutton, ed., Military Activities in the EEZ: A U.S.-China Dialogue on Security in the Maritime Commons, China Maritime Study, Newport: Naval War College Press, (forthcoming).
• "Did Abraham Lincoln Oppose Taiwan's 'Secession' from China?" Chapter in Don H. Doyle, ed. Secession as an International Phenomenon. University of Georgia Press, (2010).
• "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

• "Suffering what it must? Mongolia and the power of the 'weak'," Orbis 54:4 (forthcoming, winter 2010).
• "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.
• "China Takes the Heat" Tufts Magazine (Summer 2008) 15-19.

• "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.

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