Chinas aircraft carrier program is making major waves well before the first ship has been completed. Undoubtedly, this development heralds a new era in Chinese national security policy. While the present volume presents substantial new insight on that particular question, its focus is decidedly broader in scope. Chinese Aerospace Power offers a comprehensive survey of Chinese aerospace developments, with a focus on areas of potential strategic significance previously unexplored in Western scholarship. The book also links these developments to the vast maritime battlespace of the Asia-Pacific region and highlights the consequent implications for the U.S. military, particularly the U.S. Navy.
Dr. Andrew S. Erickson is an Associate Professor in the Strategic Research Department at the U.S. Naval War College and a core founding member of the department's China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI). He is an Associate in Research at Harvard University's John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies (2008-). Erickson also serves as an expert contributor to the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report (中国实时报). In spring 2013, he will deploy as a Regional Security Education Program scholar aboard the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group.
In 2012, the National Bureau of Asian Research awarded Erickson the inaugural Ellis Joffe Prize for PLA Studies. During academic year 2010-11, Erickson was a Fellow in the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program in residence at Harvard's Center for Graduate and International Studies. From 2008-11, he was a Fellow in the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' Public Intellectuals Program, and served as a scholar escort on a five-Member Congressional trip to Beijing, Qingdao, Chengdu, and Shanghai.
In addition to advising a wide range of student research, Erickson has taught courses at the Naval War College and Yonsei University, and has lectured extensively at government, academic, and private sector institutions throughout the United States and Asia. Erickson previously worked for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as a Chinese translator and technical analyst. He has also worked at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, the U.S. Senate, and the White House. Proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, he has traveled extensively in Asia and has lived in China, Japan, and Korea.
Erickson received his Ph.D. and M.A. in international relations and comparative politics from Princeton University and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College with a B.A. in history and political science. He has studied Mandarin in the Princeton in Beijing program at Beijing Normal University's College of Chinese Language and Culture and Japanese language, politics, and economics in the year-long Associated Kyoto Program at Doshisha University.
Erickson's research, which focuses on Asia-Pacific defense, international relations, technology, and resource issues, has been published widely in edited volumes and in such peer-reviewed journals as China Quarterly (forthcoming), Asian Security, Journal of Strategic Studies, Orbis, and China Security; as well as in Joint Force Quarterly, The American Interest, Foreign Policy, and China International Strategy Review (中国国际战略评论).
Erickson is coeditor of, and a contributor to, the Naval Institute Press book series, "Studies in Chinese Maritime Development," comprising Chinese Aerospace Power (2011), China, the U.S., and 21st Century Sea Power (2010), China Goes to Sea (2009), China's Energy Strategy (2008), and China's Future Nuclear Submarine Force (2007); as well as the Naval War College Newport Papers Rebalancing the Force (forthcoming 2013) and China's Nuclear Force Modernization (2005). He is coauthor of the CMSI monograph Chinese Mine Warfare (2009). Erickson has also published annotated translations of several Chinese articles on maritime strategy.
Erickson is co-founder of China SignPost™ 洞察中国 (www.chinasignpost.com), a research newsletter and web portal that covers key developments in Greater China, with particular focus on strategic commodities, trade, and security factors. Links to this, and his other publications, can be found at China Analysis from Original Sources 以第一手资料研究中国 (www.andrewerickson.com), a website that posts and curates analyses, many based on Chinese-language sources not previously exploited by foreign observers, to offer insights into China and its impact on the world.
Specialties
China's military and foreign policy
Japan/Asia-Pacific security and international relations
Chinese defense science, technology, and industry
Maritime and aerospace technology development, history and current status
Energy, resources, and geostrategy
Military basing and power projection
Sino-American relations and contemporary policy issues
"A people which does not possess the power to innovate will never take its place among the advanced nations of the world."
- Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, 1989-2002; President of the People's Republic of China, 1993-2003; Chairman of the Central Military Commission, 1989-2005
"There's a certain exuberance that comes from being out on the edge of technology, where things are not certain, where there is some risk, and where you make something work."
- Joseph G. Gavin, Jr.; director, Apollo Lunar Module Program; president, Grumman Corporation, 1976-85
"不是我不明白, 而是世界变得太快." - 崔健
"It's not that I don't understand, it's just that the world is changing so fast."
- Cui Jian, father of Chinese rock music
