Dr. Andrew Scobell is a distinguished fellow with the China program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He focuses on U.S.-China relations, China’s armed forces and defense policy and China’s foreign relations with countries and regions around the world — with a particular emphasis on the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

He previously spent more than 10 years as a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where his research and publications focused on China and the Indo-Pacific. Prior to RAND, Scobell was an associate professor at the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service and founding director of the China Certificate Program at Texas A&M University. From 1999 to 2007 he served as associate research professor in the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Dr. Scobell’s research interests include authoritarianism, communism and post-communism, civil-military relations, patterns and processes of cooperation and conflict, the use of armed force, crisis management, coercive diplomacy, deterrence, grand strategy and military strategy. He has authored or co-authored two books, 30 reports and more than 40 journal articles. He has also edited or co-edited 20 volumes.

Dr. Scobell earned a doctorate from Columbia University, a master’s from the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and a bachelor’s from Whitman College. His awards include the Donald Bren Chair in Non-Western Strategic Thought at Marine Corps University, the Silver Star Award at Texas A&M University, the John Madigan Award at the U.S. Army War College, the Victor Olorunsola Award at the University of Louisville. He has also been a foreign language and area studies fellow at Columbia University and a foreign affairs and national defense fellow at the Congressional Research Service. Dr. Scobell was born and raised in Hong Kong.

Publications By Andrew

Why Peace Games? Insights from East Asia

Why Peace Games? Insights from East Asia

Thursday, April 11, 2024

These days, Washington seems to be awash in war games, especially China-related ones. Yet, despite the dangers posed by a great power conflict, there are shockingly few peace games happening inside the Beltway outside the auspices of our home institution, the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Andrew Scobell on Taiwan’s Elections

Andrew Scobell on Taiwan’s Elections

Monday, January 8, 2024

The United States and China are watching closely as Taiwan prepares for elections on January 13. But while the stakes are high, USIP’s Andrew Scobell says there is a relative consensus among candidates regarding Taiwan’s foreign policy: “Whoever wins the election, we’re likely to see much more continuity than change.”

Type: Podcast

Interpreting China’s Kissinger Nostalgia

Interpreting China’s Kissinger Nostalgia

Friday, December 1, 2023

The passing of Henry Kissinger signifies the end of an extraordinary era in world politics and the closing of a momentous chapter in U.S. foreign policy. His life and legacy are being remembered in many countries, but perhaps nowhere as poignantly as China.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

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