In a former life, I was a journalist, serving briefly as a stringer for CBS News and – for a much longer time – a political reporter for The Seattle Times. (Before that, I was a cabinet-maker.) I switched careers because I grew tired of listening to politicians talk trash, and because I was thrilled to be paid to read (and write) books, and to argue with other people about them. I turned my masters thesis into a book (Asia in Japan’s Embrace, which was published in 1996 by Cambridge University Press), and am now working to turn my dissertation into a second book on the feedback effect of Asian regionalization on the political economy of Japan. A future research project will focus on the use and abuse of collective memory in the Japan-China relationship. At Colby College, where I am an assistant professor, I teach Introduction to International Relations, Japanese Politics, Chinese Politics, and the Political Economy of Regionalization. I also serve as editor of The Japanese Economy, a journal published by M.E. Sharpe.

Sino-Japanese Cooperation and Conflict

Comparative Empires

Asia in Japan's Embrace: Building a Regional Production Alliance, Cambridge University Press, 1996

"When Strong Ties Fail: U.S.-Japanese Manufacturing Rivalry in Asia," in Ellis Krauss and T.J. Pempel, eds, Beyond Bilateralism: U.S.-Japan Relations in the New Asia-Pacific, Stanford University Press, 2004

"Japanese Production Networks in Asia: Extending the Status Quo," in William W. Keller and Richard J. Samuels, eds, Crisis and Innovation in Asian Technology, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

"Regionalization Trumps Globalization: Japanese Production Networks in Asia,” in Richard Stubbs and Geoffrey R.D. Underhill, eds, Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, Oxford University Press, 2000

"Exporting the State: Japanese Administrative and Financial Guidance in Asia,” Social Science Japan Journal (University of Tokyo), October 2002