MICHAELBECKLEY
Peer-Reviewed Studies
US-China Rivalry in a Shifting International System.
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025.
The Peril of Peaking Powers: Economic Slowdowns and Implications for China's Next Decade.
China’s Economy Is Not Overtaking America’s.
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 2020.
Conditional Convergence and the Rise of China.
Journal of Global Security Studies, 2020.
The End of the Affair: U.S. China Policy under Trump.
In Stanley Renshon and Peter Suedfield, eds., The Trump Doctrine and the Emerging International System. Palgrave MacMillan, 2020.
The Power of Nations: Measuring What Matters.
International Security, 2018.
-
Winner: Best Article of the Year in Field of International Security, American Political Science Association, 2019.
America’s Role in the Making of Japan’s Economic Miracle.
Journal of East Asian Studies, 2018. (with Yusaku Horiuchi and Jennifer M. Miller).
The Emerging Military Balance in East Asia.
International Security, 2017.
The United States and China.
In Donette Murray and David Brown, eds., Power Relations in the Twenty-First Century: Mapping a Multipolar World? Routledge, 2017.
The Myth of Entangling Alliances.
International Security, 2015.
-
Runner Up: Outstanding Article Award in International History and Politics, American Political Science Association, 2016.
China in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In Andrew Scobell, Ely Ratner, and Michael Beckley, China’s Strategy toward South and Central Asia: An Empty Fortress. RAND Corporation, 2014.
China’s Century? Why America’s Edge Will Endure.
International Security, 2011/12.
Economic Development and Military Effectiveness.
Journal of Strategic Studies, 2010.
-
Winner: Amos Perlmutter Prize, Best Article of the Year, Journal of Strategic Studies, 2010.
-
Winner: Carl Beck Award, Best Graduate Student Paper of the Year, International Studies Association, 2009.
Essays
Stimson Center, September 15, 2025.
The Age of American Unilateralism: How a Rogue Superpower Will Remake the Global Order.
Foreign Affairs, April 16, 2025.
The Strange Triumph of a Broken America: Why Power Abroad Comes with Dysfunction at Home.
Foreign Affairs, January/February, 2025.
New York Times, August 19, 2024.
Countering Chinese Aggression in the South China Sea.
War on the Rocks, July 23, 2024.
Foreign Policy, February 4, 2024.
A Peaceful Solution on Taiwan Is Slipping Away.
New York Times, January 17, 2024.
Delusions of Detente: Why American and China Will Be Enduring Rivals.
Foreign Affairs, September/October 2023.
No One Should Want to See a Dictator Get Old
New York Times, August 15, 2023.
The Conversation, March 2, 2023.
Accepting a Cold War with China Is the Best Option.
Washington Examiner, December 6, 2022.
China's Growing Threat to Global Democracy
Journal of Democracy, January 2023.
The Return of Pax Americana? Putin's War Is Fortifying the Democratic Alliance.
Foreign Affairs, March 14, 2022.
Enemies of My Enemy: How Fear of China Is Forging a New World Order.
Foreign Affairs, March/April, 2022.
Washington Is Preparing for the Wrong War with China.
Foreign Affairs, December 16, 2021.
The Atlantic, November 1, 2021.
Foreign Affairs, October 1, 2021.
China Is a Declining Power—and That’s the Problem.
Foreign Policy, September 24, 2021.
-
Winner: Best Long Read Article of the Year, Foreign Policy.
America Is Not Ready for a War with China.
Foreign Affairs, June 10, 2021.
America Needs to Rediscover Strategic MacGyverism.
National Interest, March 27, 2021.
Challenges Facing Democracy in the United States.
International Affairs Forum, February 26, 2021.
Rogue Superpower: Why This Could Be an Illiberal American Century.
Foreign Affairs, November/December 2020.
-
Selected as one of the 10 best print articles of 2020 by Foreign Affairs.
-
Runner Up: Best Policy Article on U.S. Foreign Policy and Grand Strategy, American in the World Consortium, a partnership among University of Texas and Duke and Johns Hopkins Universities.
Competition with China Could Be Short and Sharp.
Foreign Affairs, December 17, 2020.
China Keeps Inching Closer to Taiwan.
Foreign Policy, October 19, 2020.
How Will China Shape Global Governance?
ChinaFile, May 9, 2020.
In Future Wars, the U.S. Military Will Have Nowhere to Hide.
Foreign Policy, November 20, 2019.
The United States Should Fear a Faltering China.
Foreign Affairs, October 28, 2019.
-
Selected as one of the 10 best web articles of 2019 by Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Affairs, September 21, 2018.
-
Selected as one of the 10 best web articles of 2018 by Foreign Affairs.
How America Can Build a Durable Military Balance in Asia.
The Interpreter, December 6, 2017.
War on the Rocks, November 15, 2017.
Enforcing International Law in the South China Sea.
RSIS Commentary, October 6, 2016.
The Myth of Entangling Alliances.
War on the Rocks, June 9, 2015.
Will This Be China’s Century?
Congressional Quarterly Researcher, 2014.
China and Pakistan: Fair-Weather Friends.
Yale Journal of International Affairs, 2014.
How Big a Competitive Threat Is China, Really?
Harvard Business Review, February 29, 2012.
Washington Post, February 6, 2012.
U.S.-China: Measuring Decline and Rise.
The Interpreter, 2012.
China Is Rising But Not Catching Up.
Christian Science Monitor, December 14, 2011.
The End of the Beginning: Why Bush and Rumsfeld Don’t Promise an Early Exit from Iraq.
Weekly Standard, April 15, 2005.
NATO’s Afghan Failure Will Hurt Europe.
Financial Times, September 30, 2004.