Adam P. Liff is a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Asia Policy Studies at Brookings. Liff is based at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, where he is Professor of East Asian International Relations and founding director of the 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative. He is also the former Visiting Chair of Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Liff’s research examines international security and foreign policy challenges in East Asia—with a particular focus on Japanese politics and foreign (especially defense) policy; the U.S.-Japan alliance; U.S. treaty allies and Taiwan; U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy; and U.S.-Japan-China relations. He holds a doctorate and master’s in politics from Princeton University, a postgraduate research certificate in international politics from the University of Tokyo, and a bachelor’s with honors and distinction from Stanford University.
Liff’s public-facing and policy-oriented research has appeared in various venues, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Asahi Shimbun, and The Washington Post. His scholarly research has been published in leading academic journals, including Asia Policy, Asian Survey, The China Quarterly, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Security, Journal of Japanese Studies, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Japanese Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Strategic Studies, Pacific Review, Security Studies, Texas National Security Review, The Washington Quarterly, and the Washington University Global Studies Law Review.
Liff’s past academic and policy research affiliations include the University of Tokyo, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Japan Chair, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Peking University, Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, Waseda University, and the Wilson Center.
Affiliations:
- Harvard University, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, associate-in-research (ended as of August 1, 2024)
- Harvard University, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, associate-in-research
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Current Positions
- Professor of East Asian International Relations (EALC Department), Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies, Indiana University
- Associate in Research, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
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Past Positions
- Associate Professor of East Asian International Relations (EALC Department), Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies, Indiana University
- Associate in Research, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
- Visiting Chair of Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Wilson China Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
- Adjunct Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Visiting Scholar, Waseda University (Japan)
- Visiting Research Fellow, University of Tokyo (Japan)
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program
- Research Fellow, Harvard Belfer Center
- National Fellow, University of Virginia
- Visiting Scholar, Peking University (China)
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Education
- Ph.D., Princeton University
- M.A., Princeton University
- B.A., Stanford University