I expect students to work hard at their studies, attend class faithfully, and ask questions, preferably questions of their own formulation. I work hard to share what I know about the history of foreign relations with them and to make their FIU degree worth more each year.
Having published a path-breaking exploration of the effect of presidential ethnicity on American foreign relations from George Washington to George W. Bush, The Great Anglo-Celtic Divide in the History of American Foreign Relations, (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO/Praeger, 2011), I am extending my research on that topic as well as pursuing research into the history of claims to the South China Sea, the Chinese frontier during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and America's disobedient diplomats.
research interests
U.S. Diplomatic History; History of China's Foreign Relations; U.S.—China Relations Ethnicity and Religion in Foreign Affairs
