Faculty + Scholars

M Taylor

Fravel

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science
Director, Security Studies Program

fravel@mit.edu

E40-471

617-324-0222

Website

CV
@fravel
Personal website

Expertise:

Asian security, East Asian foreign policy, Chinese politics and military policy, international relations, conflict resolution

Extended Details

Biography

M Taylor Fravel is the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the MIT Security Studies Program at MIT. Taylor is a graduate of Middlebury College and Stanford University, where he received his PhD. He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, a Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, a Fellow with the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program and a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also has graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the International Studies Quarterly, Security Studies, Journal of Strategic Studies, and The China Quarterly, and is a member of the board of directors for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Maritime Awareness Project.

Research

Taylor studies international relations, with a focus on international security, China, and East Asia. He is the author of Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Disputes (Princeton University Press, 2008). His latest book, Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy Since 1949, was published by Princeton University Press in 2019. His other publications have appeared in International Security, Foreign Affairs, Security Studies, International Studies Review, The China Quarterly, The Washington Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Studies, Armed Forces & Society, Current History, Asian Survey, Asian Security, China Leadership Monitor, and Contemporary Southeast Asia. His research has been supported by various organizations, including the National Science Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, United States Institute of Peace, and Smith Richardson Foundation.

Publications

"China and India are pulling back from the brink. They’ve created a buffer zone and started talks." The Washington Post, 3 March 2021.

“China's sovereignty obsession,” Foreign Affairs, 26 June 2020.

“Why are China and India skirmishing at their border? Here's 4 things to know.” The Washington Post, 2 June 2020.

“Does the global pandemic open new South China Sea opportunities for Beijing? Not really.” The Washington Post, 7 May 2020.

“Mike Pompeo criticized China for not respecting its neighbors’ territorial integrity. What’s the story?” The Washington Post, 21 February 2020.

“China is not an enemy,” The Washington Post, 3 July 2019.

“Hearing on 'A World Class' Military: Assessing China's Global Military Ambitions," Testimony before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 20 June 2019.

“Jaw–Jaw: A look at the PLA's history of planning for war with Taylor Fravel,” War on the Rocks, 11 June 2019.

“US-China relationship guidelines,” Asia Society, 12 February 2019.

“Shifts in Warfare and Party Unity: Explaining Changes in China’s Military Strategy,” International Security Vol 42, No. 3 (Winter 2017/2018)

“Why India did not 'win' the standoff with China,” War on the Rocks, 1 September 2017.

“Danger at Dolam,” The Indian Express, 18 July 2017.

“Threading the Needle: The South China Sea Disputes and U.S.-China Relations,” in Robert Ross and Øystein Tsunjo, eds., Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China: Power and Politics in East Asia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017)

“Qualitative Investigations of Theoretical Models: The Value of Process Tracing,” Journal of Theoretical Politics Vol. 29, No. 3 (2017) (with Peter Lorentzen and Jack Paine)

“The strategic implications of the South China Sea tribunal's award,” The National Interest, 13 July 2016.

“Explaining China’s Escalation in the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands Dispute,” Global Summitry Vol. 2, No. 1 (June 2016)

“China's Changing Approach to Military Strategy: The Science of Military Strategy from 2001 to 2013,” China's Evolving Military Strategy, ed. Joe McReynolds (Washington, DC: Brookings Press, 2016)

and Fiona S Cunningham. “Assuring Assured Retaliation: China’s Nuclear Strategy and US-China Strategic Stability,” International Security Vol. 40, No. 2 (Fall 2015)

“The PLA and National Security Decisionmaking: Insights from China’s Territorial and Maritime Disputes,” in Phillip Saunders and Andrew Scobell, eds., The PLA’s Role in National Security Policy-Making (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2015)

and Christopher P Twomey. “Projecting Strategy: The Myth of Chinese Counter-Intervention,” The Washington Quarterly Vol. 37, No. 4 (Winter 2015)

“Things Fall Apart: Maritime Disputes and China’s Regional Diplomacy,” in Jacques deLisle and Avery Goldstein, eds., China’s Challenges: The Road Ahead (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

“Territorial and Maritime Boundary Disputes in Asia,” in Saadia Pekkanen, Rosemary Foot, and John Ravenhill, Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)

“Chinese signaling in the East China Sea?,” The Washington Post, 12 April 2014.

“Much ado about the Sansha Garrison,” The Diplomat, 23 August 2012.

Books