Dr. Andrew S. Erickson is an Associate Professor in the Strategic Research Department at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) and a core founding member of the department’s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI). He serves on the Naval War College Review’s Editorial Board. Since 2008, he has been an Associate in Research at Harvard University’s John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Erickson is also an expert contributor to the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report, for which he has authored or coauthored thirty-one articles. Erickson is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2012, the National Bureau of Asian Research awarded him the inaugural Ellis Joffe Prize for PLA Studies. During academic year 2010-11, Erickson was a Fellow in the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program 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, and served as a scholar escort on a five-Member Congressional trip to China. He has also helped escort the Commander of China’s Navy and his delegation on a visit to Harvard, and worked to help establish a bilateral naval officer exchange program. Erickson received his Ph.D. and M.A. in international relations and comparative politics from Princeton University and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College with a B.A. in history and political science. Proficient in Mandarin Chinese and conversant in Japanese, he has traveled extensively in Asia and has lived in China, Japan, and Korea. He blogs at www.andrewerickson.com and co-runs www.chinasignpost.com.
Austin M. Strange is a Ph.D. student in Harvard University’s Department of Government studying international relations and comparative politics, with a focus on Chinese politics and foreign relations. He is also a Research Associate at AidData, a research and innovation lab of the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations based at The College of William & Mary. With colleagues at AidData, he is tracking underreported official financing from China and other states to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Formerly, Strange served as a researcher at CMSI, where he assisted and collaborated with Professor Erickson on a broad range of Chinese military and security research projects. He holds an M.S. in 
(Non-Traditional Security Management) from the College of Public Administration and Center for Non-Traditional Security and Peaceful Development Studies at Zhejiang University, and a B.A. in Economics and Chinese from the College of William & Mary. Some of Strange’s current research focuses on Chinese development finance, Sino-American military cooperation, and Chinese overseas interests.