Welcome! I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS).
I am interested in International Security, especially how and when rising powers provoke counterbalancing behaviors among their neighbors with a focus on China and East Asia. My book project theorizes how the rising costs of territorial expansion change the dynamics between rising powers and their neighbors, and explains the current dynamics of East Asian security. A stand-alone manuscript from the book project, “China’s Peaceful Rise, After All? The Threat of Rising Powers Reconsidered,” received the Best Graduate Student Paper Award from the American Political Science Association (APSA), Foreign Policy section. My other ongoing projects include a game-theoretic analysis of military conflicts, examining the arms competition in East Asia, and explaining Japan’s recent defense policy.
I received my Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California. Previously, I was a 2022-2024 U.S.-Asia Grand Strategy Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Korean Studies Institute at USC. Before entering the Ph.D. program, I served nine years in the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MOD) and in the National Security Secretariat (NSS). My service includes working as Deputy Director for the Strategic Intelligence Division at MOD from 2017 to 2019.
