Events

Talk Abstract 

How can the United States strengthen its alliances and enhance cohesion with its allies in the face of countervailing pressures from China? In this talk, CWP fellow Ayumi Teraoka shares findings from her book project, which advances the conventional “shared threats” explanation for states’ defense cooperation and argues that in the era of peacetime contestation and strategic uncertainty, the balance of respect demonstrated by the United States and China toward U.S. allies’ decision-making processes shapes their policy choices by decisively shifting domestic coalitions. It finds that, counterintuitively, the ability to appear independent of U.S. pressure makes it easier for U.S. allies to promote pro-alliance decisions at home and make alliances more resilient in the long term. With newly collected archival and interview evidence, this book project illuminates the rich history of U.S. alliance management in Asia since the 1950s and offers theoretically and historically grounded policy implications for how to navigate intensifying U.S.-China competition. 

Biography: 

Ayumi Teraoka is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program and a Postdoctoral Research Scholar with the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Japan Research Program at Columbia University. She studies alliance politics and security issues in the Indo-Pacific and teaches a course on Japanese Foreign Policy at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Her research has been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the America in the World Consortium. Her writing has appeared in the Journal of Georgetown Asian Affairs, Pacific Affairs, PS: Political Science & Politics, Foreign Policy, and The Japan Times, among others. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Security Studies from Princeton University, an M.A. in Asian Studies from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in Law from Keio University. She also previously held positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.
 

This event is a hybrid with both in-person attendees and an online audience. It is sponsored by the China and the World Program and co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

To register for the event online please register here or https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MMA0e6rgQiy-zk6e7zfbVA

If you are attending in-person, please go to: INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS BUILDING AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - 420 W. 118TH ST., NEW YORK, NY 10027 ROOM 918