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WORK TITLE: Upstart
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WEBSITE: https://www.orianaskylarmastro.com/
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PERSONAL
Married Arzan Tarapore (research scholar).
EDUCATION:Stanford University, B.A., 2006; Princeton University, M.A., 2009; Ph.D., 2013.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Professor. Strategic planner, U.S. Air Force Reserve, 2010-present; assistant professor, Georgetown University, 2013-20; Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science, Stanford University, 2023-present.
MEMBER:Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006-2007, 2024-present; American Enterprise Institute, 2017-23.
AWARDS:Individual Reservist of the Year, U.S. Air Force Reserve, 2016 and 2022; Best Book by an Untenured Faculty Member, American Political Science Association International Security Section, 2020, for The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime; Center Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
WRITINGS
Contributor to numerous periodicals, including Foreign Affairs, International Security, Security Studies, The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Journal of Strategic Studies, and Washington Quarterly.
SIDELIGHTS
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Oriana Skylar Mastro is a professor of political science and international relations, with a particular focus on Asia-Pacific security and the Chinese military. She has also been a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve since 2010 and works as a strategic planner for the U.S. military. She holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and has been a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Along with her numerous articles in academic journals, Mastro has also written for more mainstream publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Economist. Her first book, The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime, was published in 2019.
Her 2024 follow-up was Upstart: How China Became a Great Power. Mastro analyzes how China went from being a relatively minor power in the late twentieth century to being a global power that challenges the United States both economically and militarily. Mastro combines data analysis with a deep exploration of Chinese sources to make her case that China emulated the United States in a number of ways and pursued entrepreneurial actions in other ways that allowed it to exploit U.S. weaknesses. Mastro also discusses how the United States can work to maintain the competitive advantage it currently has. A writer in Kirkus Reviews declared that the book “innovatively explains the processes behind China’s challenge” and “puts forth many interesting ideas.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2024, review of Upstart: How China Became a Great Power.
ONLINE
Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University, https://css.georgetown.edu (January 25, 2019), author interview.
Oriana Skylar Mastro website, https://www.orianaskylarmastro.com (June 11, 2024).
Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She is also a nonresident scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She was previously an assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University. She continues to serve in the United States Air Force Reserve at the Pentagon. For her contributions to U.S. strategy in Asia, she won the Individual Reservist of the Year Award in 2016 and 2022 (FGO). She has published widely, including in International Security, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Strategic Studies, The Washington Quarterly, the Economist and the New York Times. Her most recent book, Upstart: How China Became a Great Power (Oxford University Press, 2024), evaluates China’s approach to competition. Her book, The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime, (Cornell University Press, 2019), won the 2020 American Political Science Association International Security Section Best Book by an Untenured Faculty Member. She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University. Her publications and other commentary can be found at www.orianaskylarmastro.com and on Twitter @osmastro.
Faculty Profile: Oriana Skylar Mastro
Date Published: January 25, 2019
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Dr. Oriana Mastro is an Assistant Professor at SSP and her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy.Prof. Oriana Mastro with her son
What are you working on right now?
A book about China’s challenge to US primacy in the Indo-Pacific.
What is your favorite thing about SSP?
The people in their passion for security studies! Everyone is really collegial and it’s a great place to hang out and debate issues.
If you could tell your grad school self one thing, what would it be?
Don’t worry, it’ll all work out.
If you could teach any course at all, what would that be?
A course I already teach on the Chinese military. It’s my favorite.
What is your favorite thing to do in DC?
I’m one of those people that loves everything about DC. I love going out for dinner and drinks and meeting new people and talking about what they do. I also like other things that aren’t possible only in DC like going to the theater, CrossFit, walking my dog, eating and drinking around town with my husband and son.
What would your advice be to SSP students be hoping to start a career in your field?
Pursue what you’re passionate about and make sure you’re the best at it.
Oriana Skylar Mastro, PhD
Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
omastro@stanford.edu
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BIOGRAPHY
Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She was previously an assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University. Mastro continues to serve in the United States Air Force Reserve as a strategic planner at Indo-Pacific Command. For her contributions to U.S. strategy in Asia, she won the Individual Reservist of the Year Award in 2016 (CGO) and 2022 (FGO).
She has published widely, including in International Security, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, the Journal of Strategic Studies, The Washington Quarterly, the Economist, and the New York Times. Her most recent book, Upstart: How China Became a Great Power (Oxford University Press, 2024), evaluates China’s approach to competition. Her book, The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime, (Cornell University Press, 2019), won the 2020 American Political Science Association International Security Section Best Book by an Untenured Faculty Member.
She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.
Her publications and commentary can be found at orianaskylarmastro.com and on Twitter @osmastro.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oriana Skylar Mastro
US political scientist and Air Force officer Oriana S. Mastro in uniform
Nationality American
Other names 梅惠琳
Education Stanford University (BA), Princeton University (PhD)
Occupation(s) Political scientist, China specialist
Employer(s) Stanford University, American Enterprise Institute
Spouse Arzan Tarapore
Website https://www.orianaskylarmastro.com
Oriana Skylar Mastro is an American political scientist currently serving as a Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and Center Fellow (tenure-track) at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.[1] She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute[2] and continues to serve in the US Air Force Reserve as a strategic planner at the US Indo-Pacific Command.
Mastro's research focuses on the Chinese military, Asia-Pacific security, war termination, and coercive diplomacy.[3]
Education
Mastro holds a BA (2006) in East Asian Studies from Stanford University[4] and a MA (2009) and PhD (2013) in politics from Princeton University.[5][6]
Military service and academic career
From 2006 to 2007, Mastro was selected as a junior fellow for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's China program. In 2008, she was part of the summer associate program at the RAND Corporation.
In 2008, while a doctoral student at Princeton, Mastro met with then deputy commander of the then U.S. Pacific Command (now U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, USINDOPACOM) Lt. Gen. Dan P. Leaf at a conference where she was invited to present research she and her colleagues at Carnegie's China program conducted earlier about the "military balance of power across the Taiwan Strait." Leaf suggested that she enlist into the U.S. military after learning about her plan to pursue a summer internship with USINDOPACOM to better research how the military dealt with issues in the Asia-Pacific.[4]
Despite initially deciding to continue with an internship instead, Mastro enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in fall 2008 and later started officer training to commission as a second lieutenant.[4]
In 2009, she joined the Department of Defense as an analyst for the U.S. Pacific Command. Subsequently, in 2010, she worked for the Project 2049 Institute as a summer associate. From 2012 to 2013, she was a fellow at the Center for a New American Security.[2]
In 2013, Mastro was appointed assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and in 2020, she was appointed a center fellow at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
In the meantime, Mastro has also continued her military service in the U.S. Air Force Reserve,[7] including by serving as a China Strategist in the Strategic Studies Group from 2010 to 2013, serving as an Asia-Pacific Strategist in the Asia-Pacific Cell, serving as a Reserve Air Attaché for Asia-Pacific Region from 2014 to 2016, serving as a Political Military Affairs Strategist for the Pacific Air Forces from 2016 to 2020, among others. She has received various awards for her service, including the Air Force's 2016 Individual Reservist Company Grade Officer of the Year.[2]
Publications
Books
The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime, Cornell University Press, Security Affairs Series, 2019[8]
Contributed Volumes
The Military Challenge of the People's Republic of China, in Defense Budgeting for a Safer World: The Experts Speak, Hoover Institution, November 1, 2023[9][10]
Project Atom 2023: A Competitive Strategies Approach for U.S. Nuclear Posture through 2035, Center for Strategic and International Studies, September 30, 2023 (co-authored with Heather Williams, Kelsey Hartigan, Lachlan MacKenzie, Robert Soofer, Tom Karako, Franklin Miller, Leonor Tomero, and Jon Wolfsthal)[11]
Deepening US-Taiwan Cooperation Through Semiconductors, in Silicon Triangle: The United States, Taiwan, China, and Global Semiconductor Security, Hoover Institution, July 18, 2023 (co-authored with Kharis Templeman)[12][13]
Articles
The Next Tripartite Pact? Foreign Affairs, February 19, 2024[14]
The U.S. Can Still Avoid War With China Over Taiwan, The New York Times, October 16, 2023[15]
Talking to the enemy: Explaining the emergence of peace talks in interstate war, Journal of Theoretical Politics, July 4, 2023 (co-authored with David A. Siegal)[16]
How an Alliance System Withers, Foreign Affairs, September 9, 2019 (co-authored with Bonnie S. Glaser)[17]
China's huge exercises around Taiwan were a rehearsal, not a signal, says Oriana Skylar Mastro, The Economist, August 10, 2022[18]
Congressional testimonies
Statement before the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party - The Challenges of Deterrence in the Taiwan Strait: Recommendations for U.S. Policy, April 26, 2023[19]
Statement before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on “Deterring PRC Aggression Toward Taiwan” - The Precarious State of Cross-Strait Deterrence, February 18, 2021[20]
Testimony of Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on “A New Approach for An Era of U.S.-China Competition,” March 13, 2019[21]
Personal life
Mastro is married to Arzan Tarapore, a research scholar at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.[22][23]
Mastro, Oriana Skylar UPSTART Oxford Univ. (NonFiction None) $29.99 7, 1 ISBN: 9780197695067
A professor of political science with a specialty in Chinese military and security policy examines the nation's ascent on the global stage.
In the 1990s, China was a marginal player in world affairs, struggling to find a path to economic development. However, during the next two decades, it established itself as a major power with a thriving economy and a vigorous government determined to challenge the U.S. Mastro, who has won awards for her geopolitical research, undertakes a deep dive into China's tactics. Her central thesis is an idea she borrowed from business thinking: that China has deliberately acted as a disruptive force, avoiding direct confrontation with the U.S. wherever possible and instead looking for gaps and weaknesses to exploit. For example, Chinese leaders have built aid-based connections with regimes that the U.S. has disdained or neglected, and they have focused on assisting with internal security issues, such as police training and surveillance systems. When China has participated in international institutions, it has sought special treatment and concessions, always looking to improve its position. It has injected itself into regional conflicts as a disinterested mediator while building up its military might. Mastro puts forward a range of moves that the U.S. might take to leverage its advantages, such as deepening its relationships with other Asian countries, asserting its position in regional hotspots, and demanding that China adhere to agreed-upon trading policy. Some of her proposals would be difficult to implement, but her framework for action is sound. While the text never entirely breaks away from its academic origins, the author puts forth many interesting ideas. Anyone who enjoyed Graham Allison's Destined for War will find this book to be insightful and thoroughly researched.
Mastro innovatively explains the processes behind China's challenge and sets out strategic possibilities to counter it.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Mastro, Oriana Skylar: UPSTART." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A793537052/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1e2c5ac8. Accessed 26 May 2024.