Dr. Andrew S. Erickson is Professor of Strategy (tenured full professor) in the U.S. Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute. A core founding member, he helped establish CMSI and stand it up officially in 2006, and has played an integral role in its development; from 2021–23 he served as Research Director. Erickson is currently a Visiting Scholar in full-time residence at Harvard University’s John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, where he has been an Associate in Research since 2008. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Institute of Maritime Policy & Strategy’s International Advisory Committee, and the Japan America Navy Friendship Association-Newport’s Board of Directors. Erickson serves on the editorial boards of Naval War College Review and Asia Policy.Erickson helped initiate, and was part of, the original ‘China Maritime Studies Group’ that approached NWC’s Provost in fall 2004 with the idea of creating CMSI. Following the NWC President’s approval, the Provost established CMSI within the Center for Naval Warfare Studies’ Strategic Research Department on 1 October 2004. Erickson helped draft the above-core issue paper for NWC’s submission to Program Objective Memorandum (POM)08 that secured the Chief of Naval Operations’ personal approval to inaugurate CMSI formally and sufficient funding to hire four additional faculty during FY 2008. On 1 October 2006, CMSI was launched in accordance with POM08 decisions by the CNO. In April 2008, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates invoked CMSI as a model for the Minerva Research Initiative. By December 2008, CMSI held four influential conferences, with edited volumes following for each. These included CMSI’s leadoff cornerstone event, “China’s Future Nuclear Submarine Force” (26–27 October 2005). Among CMSI’s early publications, Chinese Mine Warfare pioneered the validation of open-source methodology, and remains a formative study in the field. CMSI inspired the creation of other analytical centers, which Erickson has advised and supported; he is a China Aerospace Studies Institute Associate.In 2024 Erickson was awarded the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal. In 2017 he received NWC’s inaugural Civilian Faculty Research Excellence Award. In 2012 the National Bureau of Asian Research awarded Erickson the inaugural Ellis Joffe Prize for PLA Studies; he subsequently served on the selection committee. His publications have won various awards, including the NWC Foundation’s Hugh G. Nott Prize (first & second place), the U.S. Naval Institute General Prize Essay Contest (third prize), and repeated recognition by the Center for International Maritime Security.Erickson has taught courses at NWC and Yonsei University. He provides flag officer tailored education for NWC, both on and off campus; including in Honolulu, Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Naples. He advises and evaluates a wide range of student research, theses, and professional development at NWC, Harvard, and other institutions. Erickson contributes curricular instruction, inputs, and guidance to NWC, across the Naval University System, and beyond; particularly in support of SECDEF’s guidance for professional military education regarding China. In 2013, while deployed in the Pacific as a Naval Postgraduate School Regional Security Education Program scholar aboard the flagship aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, Erickson delivered twenty-five hours of lectures. He has also accompanied an allied military air patrol in East Asia.For two decades, Erickson has supported NWC’s scholarly research relationship with Japanese counterparts. In 2014 he helped to escort the Commander of China’s Navy and his delegation on a visit to Harvard. He subsequently helped to establish, escort the first iteration of, and further assist NWC’s first bilateral naval officer exchange program and field studies class in China. Erickson was a scholar escort on a five-member congressional trip to China in 2011. He participates in a range of Track 1, 1.5, and 2 discussions, including as a delegate at the Shangri-La Dialogue; and has joined delegations sponsored by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.From 2022–24 Erickson was a Visiting Professor in Harvard’s Department of Government, within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. During 2019–22 he was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Fairbank Center. From 2012–17 Erickson was an expert contributor to the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report, for which he authored/coauthored thirty-eight articles. Erickson was the 2010–11 Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program Fellow in residence at Harvard’s Center for Government and International Studies. From 2008–11 he was a Fellow in the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. In 2005–06, he was a Research Fellow sponsored by the late longtime director of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, Andrew Marshall.Erickson presents at academic, private sector, and government institutions throughout the United States and Asia. He has broadened his knowledge by attending four Zhuhai Airshows, editing newsletters for a hedge fund, and speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Erickson has briefed a broad array of senior U.S. and foreign policy-makers and principals. Within the U.S. Navy: the CNO and Executive Panel, the Secretary of the Navy, and leaders throughout the Indo-Pacific. Elsewhere in government: the National Security Council’s Deputy National Security Advisor, Senior Director for Asia, China/Taiwan Directors, and Chief of Staff; Ambassador to China and other Executive Branch officials; SECDEF; Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Air Force Chief of Staff; Marine Corps and Coast Guard Commandants; other agency heads; and many Members of Congress. Internationally: numerous high-level officials, including heads of multiple foreign navies and other government organizations. Additionally: the National Academies’ Naval Studies Board.Erickson testifies before such congressional bodies as the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees and U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He has provided inputs for, and reviews of, multifarious government programs, wargaming/simulations, and reports; including in support of the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends study and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Annual Report to Congress on China’s Military Power. Erickson’s research, presentations, and recommendations are consumed widely by key principals and have influenced specific aspects of U.S. and allied government military doctrine as well as civilian, military, and interagency assessments, policy, messaging guidance, statements, and actions.Erickson received his Ph.D. and M.A. in politics from Princeton University and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College. He took many courses at The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; studied Mandarin in the Princeton in Beijing program at Beijing Normal University’s College of Chinese Language and Culture; and studied Japanese language, politics, and economics in the year-long Associated Kyoto Program at Doshisha University. He gained early experience interning at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Consulate in Hong Kong, Peace Corps Headquarters, Senate, and White House. Proficient in Mandarin Chinese and conversant in Japanese, he has lived and performed academic work in China, Japan, and Korea. Erickson has traveled across the Indo-Pacific, from key strategic islands, waters, and airspace to China’s Zhongnanhai leadership compound, multiple nations’ military bases near the Korean DMZ, and Pakistan’s remote hinterlands. Erickson previously worked for Science Applications International Corporation as a Chinese translator and technical analyst.Erickson is the author of the book Chinese Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Development (Jamestown Foundation/Brookings Institution Press, 2013). He is coauthor of two other books: Gulf of Aden Anti-Piracy and China’s Maritime Commons Presence (Jamestown/Brookings, 2015) and Assessing China’s Cruise Missile Ambitions (National Defense University Press, 2014). He has coauthored four additional volumes: Charting China’s International Security Activism (Center for a New American Security, 2015), the CMSI monographs Chinese Antipiracy Operations in the Gulf of Aden (2013) and Chinese Mine Warfare (2009), and the CASI monograph The PLAAF’s Campaign for a Bigger Maritime Role (2019). Erickson is the editor of, and a contributor to, three volumes: Maritime Gray Zone Operations (Routledge Cass Series: Naval Policy & History, 2022/paperback 2024), Chinese Naval Shipbuilding (Naval Institute Press, 2016/paperback 2023), and Proceedings of the 47th History Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics (Univelt, 2015). He is coeditor of, and a contributor to, eleven volumes. This includes seven (in addition to Chinese Naval Shipbuilding) of the eight “Studies in Chinese Maritime Development” books to date, for which he is the series editor; comprising the NIP volumes China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations (2019/Japanese translation 2020/paperback 2023/Taiwan Defense Ministry translation 2023), Chinese Aerospace Power (2011), China, the U.S., and 21st Century Sea Power (2010/China Ocean Press translation 2014), China Goes to Sea (2009/China Ocean Press translation 2015/paperback 2021), China’s Energy Strategy (2008/China Ocean Press translation 2015), and China’s Future Nuclear Submarine Force (2007/China Ocean Press translation 2015); as well as the forthcoming NWC Press books Chinese Amphibious Warfare: Prospects for a Cross-Strait Invasion (summer 2024) and Chinese Undersea Warfare: Development, Capabilities, Trends. It also includes Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia-Pacific (NIP, 2014/paperback August 2024), the CMSI volume China’s Near Seas Combat Capabilities (2014), and the NWC Newport Paper China’s Nuclear Force Modernization (2005).Read more about this authorRead less about this author