Peter Harris

Peter Harris

Non-Resident Fellow

Areas of expertise: alliances, Asia, China, civil-military relations, grand strategy, great power competition, Middle East, NATO, Pentagon spending, Russia, Western Hemisphere

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Peter Harris is a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities and an associate professor of political science at Colorado State University, where his teaching and research focus on international security and U.S. foreign policy. He received his PhD in Government from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was also a graduate fellow of the Clements Center for National Security. His work has appeared in journals including Asian Security, Chinese Journal of International Politics, International Affairs, Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, and Political Science Quarterly.

Research and writing

Featured
Moving to an offshore balancing strategy for East Asia
Moving to an offshore balancing strategy for East Asia

The balance of power in East Asia has shifted in China's favor, but it does not follow that China constitutes a major threat to the territorial integrity or political independence of all neighboring states. As DEFP Non-Resident Fellow Peter Harris argues in a new explainer, upholding peace and stability in East Asia does not require U.S. military primacy. U.S. efforts to dominate the region could backfire by intensifying the U.S.-China rivalry and plunging East Asia into a new cold war. A more sensible approach would be to move toward an offshore balancing posture that incentivizes capable regional states to provide for their own defense and deter Chinese aggression.

Deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan: Upholding the status quo
Deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan: Upholding the status quo

The United States has an interest in avoiding a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, but America’s overriding concern is to avoid a ruinous war with China. Proposals to deter China by bolstering U.S. military deployments in the Western Pacific are unlikely to succeed and fraught with danger. Instead, the United States should encourage Taiwan and other regional actors to develop their own means of deterring a Chinese invasion. If calibrated correctly, Taiwan and others may be able to threaten a response severe and credible enough to deter Beijing.