About

Kent E. Calder is the Edwin O. Reischauer Professor and Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He has previously served as the school's Interim Dean in 2021, Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation from 2018 to 2020, and director of Asia Programs from 2016 to 2018. Calder received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he worked under the direction of Edwin O. Reischauer. He is a specialist in East Asian political economy, having lived and researched in Japan for eleven years and across East Asia for four years. Calder has held positions as a special advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), professor at Princeton University, lecturer on government at Harvard, and the first executive director of Harvard University’s Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. His research focuses on Asian energy security, geopolitics, and international political economy, with recent publications addressing Eurasian maritime geopolitics, global political cities, and Eurasian integration.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Business
• Computer Science
• Market economy
• Economy
• Economic system
• Economic history
• Law
• Economics
• Political economy
• Psychology
• Psychoanalysis

Selected publications

• Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers eBooks · 2025-01-01

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  Reviews the strategic geography of the sea lanes from Northeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to Europe since the Middle Ages, noting how changing technology and economic patterns have transformed the global significance of those passage ways, especially since the end of the Cold War. Begins with a survey of the geography itself, and of how rimland nations such as India, Indonesia, and the Gulf configure it. A history of the changing economic role of the sea lanes complements that geographic assessment, chronicling how maritime flows of energy, commodities and information have steadily increased. Focuses on the contrasting roles of the United States—as Guardian at the Gate-- and China—as Challenger-- in these strategic sea lanes, and the contrasting leverage which each side enjoys. Concludes with an assessment of shadows and uncertainties relating to the Eurasian sea lanes in the post-Ukraine world, and to policies that can sensibly be taken to deal with looming future policy challenges.

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• Index

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers eBooks · 2025-01-01

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• 3 Linking Land and Sea: The Transformation of Eurasia’s Rimlands

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers eBooks · 2025-01-01

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• The Covid Shock, American Domestic Transformation, and Transpacific Relations

  2025-01-01

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• 5 The Challenger: China and Eurasia’s Sea Lanes

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers eBooks · 2025-01-01

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• Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics

  Brookings Institution Press eBooks · 2025-01-01

  book1st authorCorresponding

  <JATS1:p>Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics by Kent E. Calder examines the strategic geography of the sea lanes from Northeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to Europe, through which much of the world's energy and information flow. Calder shows how changing technology and economic patterns have profoundly transformed the global significance of those passageways since the end of the Cold War, with fateful consequences for the strategic calculations of both the United States and a rising China. The decline of the US shipping and shipbuilding sectors, coupled with the rise of their Chinese counterparts, is a major part of this hybrid equation.</JATS1:p> <JATS1:p>The book provides readers a history of the changing economic role of the sea lanes as well as the decline of US maritime competitiveness. It chronicles how maritime flows of energy, commodities, and information through submarine cables have increased. Calder's clear eyed assessment documents the uncertainties relating to Eurasian sea lanes stretching from Taiwan to the Red Sea and beyond in the post-Ukraine world.</JATS1:p>

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• 7 The Changing Chessboard of Sea-Lane Geopolitics

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers eBooks · 2025-01-01

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• 2 The Changing Geo-Economics of the Sea Lanes

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers eBooks · 2025-01-01

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• 1 The Strategic Geography of Eurasia’s Sea Lanes

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers eBooks · 2025-01-01

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• Global Governance, China’s Role, and Beijing as a Global Political City

  China and globalization · 2024-01-01

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  Global governance in its ideal form seems unlikely anytime soon given the turbulence pervading contemporary international affairs, but one bright spot is the rise of the “global political city”—an urban community that serves as a major node of governance, agenda setting, and/or resources for the world. Traditionally a “city of walls and gates”, BeijingBeijing is transitioning into one of the world’s most important global political cities with an increasingly vibrant idea industry. Beijing’sBeijing idea institutions and their understanding of global trends will ultimately be crucial in determining and clarifying China’sChina global role and its potential contributions to global governance.

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Frequent coauthors

• Atul Kohli

  132 shared

• George W. Downs

  106 shared

• Nancy Bermeo

  98 shared

• Paul E. Sigmund

  98 shared

• Richard Challener

  91 shared

• John Waterbury

  90 shared

• Gilbert Rozman

  79 shared

• Robert L. Tignor

  79 shared

Awards & honors

• Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon (2014)