'Great power competition and overseas bases' a conversation with CWP alum at Brookings

What challenges and risks do Chinese and Russian bases pose to the United States’ military strategy? How do the great powers’ military postures interact and with what consequences for regional and global security? In their latest edited volume, “Great Power Competition and Overseas Bases: Chinese, Russian, and American Force Posture in the Twenty-First Century,” Andrew Yeo and Isaac Kardon examine the emerging dynamics of geostrategic competition for overseas military bases and base access.

On September 19, the Center for Asia Policy Studies and the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings hosted Yeo, Kardon, and two contributors to their edited volume to discuss key findings and evaluate the implications of overseas bases in great power competition. Brookings Foreign Policy Director of Research Michael E. O’Hanlon delivered welcoming remarks.

A newly released book that CWP alum Isaac Kardon co-edited and wrote some chapters for, as did fellow CWP alum Dawn Murphy: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815740698/Great-Power-Competition-and-Overseas-Bases-Chinese-Russian-and-American-Force-Posture-in-the-Twenty-First-Century

Video of Brookings launch event from Sept 19th: https://www.brookings.edu/events/great-power-competition-and-overseas-bases/

Isaac B. Kardon, Ph.D., (孔适海博士) is a senior fellow for China studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is concurrently adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and was formerly assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC), where he served as a research faculty member in the China Maritime Studies Institute.

Isaac’s research centers on the People’s Republic of China’s maritime power, with specialization in maritime disputes and the international law of the sea, Chinese global port development, China-Pakistan relations, and the People’s Liberation Army’s overseas basing. His writing appears in International Security, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Naval War College Review, as well as other scholarly and policy publications. Isaac’s book, China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order (Yale, 2023) analyzes whether and how China is “making the rules” of regional and global order.

Dr. Dawn Murphy joined the National War College as an Associate Professor of National Security Strategy in 2022. Prior to joining NWC, her academic appointments included Associate Professor of International Security Studies at Air War College, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Princeton (Columbia)-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University.

Murphy specializes in Chinese foreign policy and domestic politics, US-China relations, and international relations. Her research analyzes China’s interests and behavior as a rising global power towards the existing international order. She examines China’s relations with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa in her book China’s Rise in the Global South: The Middle East, Africa, and Beijing’s Alternative World Order (Stanford University Press, 2022). It analyzes China’s foreign policy approach towards the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa regionally (e.g., political, economic, military, and foreign aid) and through detailed case studies of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the China-Middle East Issues Special Envoy, the China-Africa Issues Special Envoy, China’s Special Envoy for Syria, China’s naval base in Djibouti, and China’s Belt and Road initiative.

Photo Credit: By Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70007531