Van Jackson

Van Jackson, PhD, is a senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University of Wellington and host of The Un-Diplomatic Podcast. Van’s research broadly concerns the politics of U.S. foreign policy--especially critical and progressive politics--East Asian and Pacific security, and a critical perspective on the theory and practice of grand strategy. He is the author of dozens of journal articles, book chapters, and policy reports, as well as three books, the most recent of which is Pacific Power Paradox: American Statecraft and the Fate of the Asian Peace, with Yale University Press (2023). His two earlier books, both with Cambridge University Press, were On the Brink: Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War (2018), and Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in US-North Korea Relations (2016). His two ongoing research projects focus on the connection between democracy, foreign policy, and global insecurity. One is a book under contract called Grand Strategies of the Left: The Foreign Policy of Progressive Worldmaking. The other, also under contract, is called The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy. Prior to joining Victoria, Van taught courses on Asian security, U.S. foreign policy, and Korea and Japan at Georgetown University, Hawaii Pacific University, the Catholic University of America, and the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. His research has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Academy of Korean Studies, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and he has held policy research appointments with the Center for a New American Security, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Pacific Forum CSIS. Before becoming a scholar, Van was a practitioner of U.S. foreign and defense policy, serving in several positions in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense from 2009-2014, as well as the U.S. Air Force, from 2000-2006. During the 2020 US presidential election, he was an unpaid foreign policy adviser to multiple presidential campaigns.

Click here to learn more about Professor Jackson's background and interests in an interview with Anita Fuentes, Executive Producer of the SiC Podcast.