Brian C. Chao

Welcome to my website! I am an assistant professor in the Naval War College’s National Security Affairs Department and a non-resident associate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Contemporary China.

My research focuses on East Asia and great-power politics, naval power and geostrategy, and US Asia-Pacific defense and foreign policies. My work appears in Navies in Multipolar Worlds: From the Age of Sail to the Present and Security, Development and Sustainability in Asia: A World Scientific Reference on Major Policy and Development Issues of 21st Century Asia, as well as International Relations of the Asia-Pacific and Territory, Politics, Governance. I have also written for the China Brief, The Diplomat, the East Asia Forum, The National Interest, and the US Naval Institute, among others. I have contributed testimony to the Court of the Citizens of the World and commentary to Newsweek and Voice of America Chinese.

I have a new book forthcoming: Continental Powers and Naval Development: Strategy Coherence, Threat Diffusion, and Success at Sea. Click on “Book” at the top of this page for more information.

My article with Hyun-Binn Cho is now available as part of a special issue on foreign-policy signaling in the Indo-Pacific: “Muddied Waters: Freedom-of-Navigation Operations as Signals in the South China Sea” (The British Journal of Politics and International Relations). Click on “Additional Projects” at the top of this page for more information.

I hold an AM and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and an AB in Government from Dartmouth College.

You can find my curriculum vitae here and my occasional tweets on X.