Andrew Scobell

Dr. Andrew Scobell was appointed Distinguished Fellow and Principal Asia Analyst at ISDP in October 2025. Prior to this, he served as Distinguished Fellow in the Asia Center at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Between 2010 and 2021 he was Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation’s offices in Arlington, Virginia, focused on Indo-Pacific security issues. During 2020, on a leave of absence from RAND, Scobell held the Donald Bren Chair in Non-Western Strategic Thought in the Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare at Marine Corps University. Since 2012, Scobell has served as an adjunct professor in the Asian Studies Program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previous positions include Associate Professor of International Affairs at the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University (3 years); Associate Research Professor in the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College (8 years).

Scobell’s major publications include: The 2022 Pelosi Visit to Taiwan: Assessing US-China Signaling and Action-Reaction Dynamics (USIP, 2025); Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan (National Defense University, 2022); China’s Grand Strategy: Trends, Trajectories, Implications for the United States (RAND, 2020); At the Dawn of Belt and Road: China in the Developing World (RAND, 2018); PLA Influence on China’s National Security Policymaking (Stanford University Press, 2015); China’s Search for Security (Columbia University Press, 2012) and China’s Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Scobell earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University and is an alumnus of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. He was awarded an MA in China Studies from the University of Washington and a BA in History from Whitman College.