Adam P. Liff is a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Asia Policy Studies at Brookings. Since August 2023 he is the Visiting Chair of Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Liff is currently on leave from Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, where he is associate professor of East Asian international relations and founding director of the 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative.
An expert on Asia-Pacific security affairs, Liff’s current research focuses on Japanese foreign policy (especially security) and the U.S.-Japan alliance, Taiwan, and the rise of China and its regional impact. He holds a doctorate and master’s from Princeton University, and a bachelor’s from Stanford University. Liff’s past research affiliations include the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, Peking University’s School of International Studies, the Princeton-Harvard China & the World Program, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science, Waseda University, and the Wilson Center.
Liff’s public-facing and policy-oriented research has appeared in various online venues, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Asahi Shimbun, and The Washington Post. His scholarly research has been published in leading academic journals, including Asia Policy, Asian Survey, The China Quarterly, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Security, Journal of Japanese Studies, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Japanese Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Strategic Studies, Security Studies, Texas National Security Review, The Washington Quarterly, and the Washington University Global Studies Law Review.
Affiliations:
- Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, visiting Japan chair
- Harvard University, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, associate-in-research
- Harvard University, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, associate-in-research
- Indiana University, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies (EALC Department), associate professor
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Current Positions
- Visiting Chair of Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Associate Professor of East Asian International Relations (EALC Department), Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies, Indiana University
- Associate in Research, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
- Associate in Research, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
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Past Positions
- Wilson China Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
- Adjunct Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Visiting Scholar, Waseda University (Japan)
- Visiting Research Fellow, University of Tokyo (Japan)
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program
- Research Fellow, Harvard Belfer Center
- National Fellow, University of Virginia
- Visiting Scholar, Peking University (China)
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Education
- Ph.D., Politics, Princeton University, 2014
- M.A., Politics, Princeton University, 2011
- B.A., Stanford University, 2005