Professor Friedberg is a distinguished scholar in international politics who served as a Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President from 2003 to 2005. He has published a lot of books and papers, including Beyond Air–Sea Battle: The Debate Over US Military Strategy in Asia (Adelphi series, 2014), and A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia (Norton, 2011).

Recently, He also contributed a special monograph for the SPF entitled “The Authoritarian Challenge: China, Russia and the Threat to the Liberal International Order”.*　In this monograph, he examines the deeply rooted factors driving China and Russia to adopt aggressive policies challenging the existing international order and western values, including the resentment, ambition and insecurity of their regimes.

In the course of the seminar, based on the argument of his monograph, Professor Friedberg llustrated the strategies both authoritarian countries have taken in order to survive and preserve their political power, and the implications for the United States and Japan.

* Under the Japan-U.S. Program, the SPF has published a series of special monographs, inviting the distinguished scholars and experts who have been cooperating on various projects of our program as authors. This series aims to raise awareness a wide range of academic and policy topics important to Japan-U.S. relations. PDF file of Professor Friedberg’s monograph is available on our website.