MICHAELBECKLEY
Michael Beckley is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Tufts University, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
His research develops new methods for measuring national power and forecasting the rise and fall of great powers, revealing why some states dominate while others decline. Challenging conventional wisdom, he argues that major powers like China and India are weaker than they appear, that China’s economic rise has already ended, and that the greatest geopolitical dangers come not from rising challengers but from peaking powers facing stagnation—when they are most prone to military aggression. These insights have reshaped debates on U.S.-China rivalry and global stability.
His work has received multiple awards from the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association and has been widely cited in The Atlantic, The Economist, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Previously, he was an International Security Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School and worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, the RAND Corporation, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He continues to advise offices within the U.S. Intelligence Community and the U.S. Department of Defense.
He holds a PhD in political science from Columbia University. His books include Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower (2018) and Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict With China (2022), co-authored with Hal Brands.
