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Thursday, April 3, 2025

China's Climb to Power -- 

How Did They Do It?

with Oriana Skylar Mastro

Oriana's sponsor is
Mike Morrison, WACSC Board of Directors

About the Program

          Thirty years ago, the idea that China could challenge the United States economically, globally, and militarily seemed unfathomable. Yet today, China is considered another great power in the international scene. How did this 4,000-year-old, mostly agrarian nation manage to build such power in a world that was dominated by the U.S., and where Russia was determined to become a close second?  What factors generated the strategies Beijing pursued to achieve this feat?

          With China’s Climb to Power, Oriana Skylar Mastro will lift the curtain on how a careful mix of international strategic emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship, enabled China to rise so dramatically on a global scale. In short, we’ll understand how China came to exploit geopolitical opportunities around the world that other powers ignored. 

About the Speaker

         Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University.  Her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She also serves in the United States Air Force Reserve where she works as a strategic planner at Indo-Pacific Command.

          Oriana has published widely, including in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Security Studies, The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Journal of Strategic Studies, and The Washington Quarterly. Her book, The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime, (Cornell University Press, 2019), won the 2020 American Political Science Association International Security Section Best Book by an Untenured Faculty Member. She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.

         Oriana will welcome questions after her talk. Be sure to register for this lively, eye-opening and informative program.