Alan M. Wachman
Associate Professor of International Politics
The Fletcher School, Graduate School of International Affairs, Tufts University
Alan M. Wachman joined the faculty of The Fletcher School as an assistant professor of international politics in 1997 and was promoted to associate professor in 2003. Formerly, he served in New York as president of China Institute in America (1995-1997) and, before that, was the American Co-director of The Johns Hopkins University–Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, in Nanjing, People’s Republic of China (1993-1995). He earned an A.B. in Fine Arts and an A.M. and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. In addition, he is an alumnus of The Fletcher School, from which he received an M.A.L.D. in 1984.
Professor Wachman is the author of two books as well as chapters in multi-authored texts and journal articles pertaining to Sino-U.S. Relations, Taiwan and cross-Strait relations. His book, Why Taiwan? Geostrategic Rationales for China’s Territorial Integrity will be published by Stanford UniversityPress in 2007 as part of the Studies in Asian Security series in association with the East West Center. That work reframes the conflict between Beijing and Taipei in terms of the PRC’s geostrategic concerns about Taiwan, concerns that reflect a view China’s rulers have had in the past about the island as either a buffer or bridgehead. His first book was entitled Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization (M.E. Sharpe, 1994).
In the classroom, Wachman emphasizes the influence of the past on contemporary thinking about foreign policy—sometimes to indicate patterns of consistency, often to point out disjunctions. His courses highlight, as his publications do, the diplomatic and security dimensions of international interaction. In May, 2001, he was honored by students at The Fletcher School with the James L. Paddock Award for Excellence in Teaching.