Claiming the Sea: Asian Perspectives on Maritime Dominance

About the Conference

Asia’s seas have long served as arenas of commerce, cooperation, contestation, and conflict. Today, the maritime expanse stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Arctic stands at the center of global geopolitics, economic flows, environmental pressures, and strategic competition—military, legal, and otherwise. With these dynamics in mind, this conference seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on how maritime dominance is conceptualized, pursued, and contested across Asian contexts.

Agenda

Thursday, October 29:

1:30PM: Opening Remarks

• Andrew Wilson, U.S. Naval War College
• Bruce Dickson, George Washington University

1:45-3:15PM: Panel I—Indian Ocean

• Darshana M. Baruah, Shangri-La Dialogue Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Defence and Strategy
• Deepa Ollapally, George Washington University
• Nirmal Verma (Admiral RET), U.S. Naval War College

3:15-3:30PM Coffee Break

3:30-5:00PM Panel II—China

• Xiaobing Li, University of Central Oklahoma
• Shuxian Luo, University of Hawai’i
• Kathleen Walsh, U.S. Naval War College

Friday, October 30:

9-10:30AM Panel III—Southeast Asia/Littoral/Oceania

• Satu Limaye, The America + Asia Project
• Shawn McHale, George Washington University
• Jonathan Ping, Bond University

10:30-10:45AM Coffee Break

10:45AM-12:15PM Panel IV—Northeast Asia/Korea/Japan

• Alexis Dudden, University of Connecticut
• Alessio Patalano, King’s College
• Daqing Yang, George Washington University

12:15-1:15PM Lunch

1:15-2:45PM Panel V—Arctic Russia

• Pavel Devyatkin, The Arctic Institute
• Richard Moss, U.S. Naval War College
• Michael Petersen, Center for Naval Analyses

2:45-3PM Coffee

3:00PM Wrap-up Session and Next Steps

• Andrew Wilson, U.S. Naval War College
• Bruce Dickson, George Washington University
• Peter Lorge, Vanderbilt University

Doors will open no sooner than 15 minutes before the start time.

The Elliott School can coordinate with the university to reasonably accommodate most disabilities. If you need specific accommodations, please contact the Sigur Center at gsigur@gwu.edu. Requests should be made as soon as possible, but at least three days prior to the program to ensure accommodation.

About the Speakers

Andrew R. Wilson is the John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies. Professor Wilson has lectured at military colleges and civilian universities across the United States and around the world. The author of numerous books and articles on Chinese military history, Chinese sea power, and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, his most recent co-edited volume is Traversing the Belt and Road: The World According to China and China According to the World. Professor Wilson is also featured on The Great Courses, with lecture series including The Art of War; Masters of War: History’s Greatest Strategic Thinkers; and Understanding Imperial China: Dynasties, Life and Culture.

Professor Bruce Dickson received his B.A. in political science and English literature, his M.A. in Chinese Studies, and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan. He joined the faculty of The George Washington University and the Elliott School in 1993. Professor Dickson's research and teaching focus on political dynamics in China, especially the adaptability of the Chinese Communist Party and the regime it governs. In addition to courses on China, he also teaches on comparative politics and authoritarianism. His current research examines the political consequences of economic reform in China, the Chinese Communist Party’s evolving strategy for survival, and the changing relationship between state and society. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Darshana M. Baruah is the Shangri-La Dialogue Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Defence and Strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Her work focuses on maritime security, defence partnerships, island states, and Indian Ocean geopolitics. She previously worked at the Australia India Institute and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she established the Indian Ocean Initiative. She is the author of The Contest for the Indian Ocean: And the Making of a New World Order (Yale University Press, 2024).

Deepa Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, and Asian regional and maritime security. She is a Research Professor of International Affairs. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program that tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia. Dr. Ollapally is currently working on a funded book, Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indian Ocean Region, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. Previously, she was Associate Professor at Swarthmore College and has been a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London and at Columbia University. Dr. Ollapally also held senior positions in the policy world including the US Institute of Peace, Washington DC and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

Admiral (Ret) Nirmal Verma served as Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy from 2009-2012 and concurrently held charge as the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee from June 2011. His afloat appointments include commands of a frigate, a destroyer and aircraft carrier INS Viraat. His assignments as Flag Officer include an operational theater command, and policy formulation on budget management, acquisitions and human resources. Post retirement he served as India's High Commissioner (Ambassador) to Canada. The Admiral is currently a U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Distinguished International Fellow at the U.S. Naval War College.

Xiaobing Li is a professor of history and the Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma. Li is the author, co-author or co-editor of his recent books: China’s Mahan: Admiral Liu Huaqing and the Rise of the Modern Chinese Navy (Naval Institute Press, 2026), Xi’s China and Its Neighbors (Routledge, 2026), China under Xi Jinping (Leiden University, 2024), China’s New Navy (Naval Institute, 2023), Sino-American Relations (Amsterdam University, 2022), The Dragon in the Jungle: The Chinese Army in the Vietnam War (Oxford University Press, 2020), East Asia and the West (Cognella, 2020), Attack at Chosin (University of Oklahoma, 2020), Mountain Movers: A Century of Student Movements in China, 1919-2019 (Lexington, 2020), Building Hu’s Army (University of Kentucky, 2019), The History of Taiwan (ABC-CLIO, 2019), China’s War in Korea (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), The Cold War in East Asia (Routledge, 2018), and Power versus Law in Modern China (University of Kentucky, 2017).

Dr. Shuxian Luo is an Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research interests include China's foreign and security policy, great power politics, maritime security, and crisis management. Her first book, Simmering Seas: Escalation and De-escalation in China's Maritime Disputes, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in October 2026. She is currently working on her second book, Partners in Flux: China-Russia Relations Across Strategic Regions, which assesses patterns of China-Russia strategic interaction across key theaters in the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia. Her other ongoing research projects examine cross-Taiwan Strait security and how great powers learn from past crises and wars. Dr. Luo was previously an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College, a Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Brookings Institution. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Kathleen (Kate) Walsh is a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College where she has taught policy analysis since 2006. Walsh is a member of the Faculty Advisory Council, the NWC’s Asia Pacific Studies Group (APSG) director and the founder/director of the Oceanography & Maritime Security Group (OMSG). She was a senior consultant to Washington, D.C.-area think tanks including senior associate at the Stimson Center and senior associate at a D.C.-area defense consulting firm, among other past positions there. Her research focuses on China and the Asia-Pacific region, particularly issues of security, technology, innovation and ocean or "blue" economy issues.

Satu Limaye is a Visiting Scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, President & CEO of The America + Asia Project (TAAP), Senior Fellow, Center for Naval Analyses (CNA Corporation). He publishes and speaks widely on Indo-Pacific regional issues and supports various U.S. government, foundation, fellowship, and professional organizations. He was previously Vice President of the East West Center (EWC), serving concurrently as Director EWC in Washington and created the Asia Matters for America initiative. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) as a George C. Marshall Scholar.

Shawn McHale focuses on the comparative study of colonialism, violence, and modern Southeast Asian history, with a particular interest in Vietnam. His latest book is The First Vietnam War: Violence, Sovereignty, and the Fracture of the South, 1945-56 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a deeply researched study of the violent end of French colonialism in southern Vietnam. He has also written on the rise of a Vietnamese print culture, 1920-1945. He is currently researching and writing a book on Vietnamese engagements with Theravada Buddhism, 1930-1990. He is the recipient of Fulbright-Hays and ACLS/ Robert H.N. Ho fellowships. Professor McHale received his B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Southeast Asian history from Cornell University (1995).

Dr. Jonathan H. Ping is a scholar in the fields of global political economy, international relations and comparative politics. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and received his PhD from the University of Adelaide. He specialises in the study of statecraft. In this area he has developed the first unifying theory of the middle power concept --hybridisation theory-- as presented in his book Middle Power Statecraft. His most recent book Chinese Engagements focuses on the great power, China. His current research focus is on middle power statecraft theory, great power statecraft theory and a theory of the nature of hegemony in and from Asia. Dr. Ping has research affiliations with universities globally. He is a Director of the East Asia Security Symposium and Conference held annually at the China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing. He has worked and undertaken research for government and non-government sectors. Dr. Ping teaches courses on Global Political Economy, Global Development and South Asia at Bond University. He engages regularly with the public through newspaper articles, television and radio commentary and presents at seminars and conferences.

Alexis Dudden is a Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. She has written extensively about Japan and Northeast Asia, with numerous articles in academic and mainstream publications. Her books include Troubled Apologies Among Japan, Korea, and the United States (Columbia, 2008), Japan's Colonization of Korea (University of Hawai'i Press, 2005) and a collaborative graphic history project called CARGO REBELLION: Those Who Chose Freedom (PM Press, 2023) detailing the events and implications of the 1852 mutiny in the East China Sea aboard the US merchant ship Robert Bowne. She is working on a project called The Opening and Closing of Japan, 1850-2020, that examines the country’s modern history through the lens of its contemporary territorial disputes. Dudden received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University in 1991 and her PhD in history from the University of Chicago in 1998.

Alessio Patalano is Professor of War & Strategy in East Asia at the Department of War Studies (DWS), and Co-Director of the Centre for Grand Strategy (CGS) at King’s College London (KCL). He specialises in maritime strategy and doctrine, Japanese military history and strategy, East Asian security, and European defence and foreign policy. He taught at the UK Joint Command and Staff Services College (JSCSC), and held research positions at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the IRIS in Paris, and for KOMATSU Corporation, with responsibility to deliver timely high-impact risk analysis. Prof Patalano is an academic advisor to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and was chair of the maritime strategy group of the Secretary of State’s Office for Net Assessment and Challenge (SONAC) at the UK Ministry of Defence. Beyond academia, Prof Patalano was the first specialist advisor (SPAD) on the Indo-Pacific to the Foreign Affairs Committee (2022) in the UK Parliament to assess the impact of strategic stability in the Strait of Taiwan on UK national security. In 2024, he was the first political advisor to the Italian Navy Commander in Chief (CinC), for the Mare Aperto – POLARIS exercise, the largest naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea since the end of the Cold War (10k personnel, 50 ships).

A historian of modern Japan, Daqing Yang has research interests in the following three areas: the technological construction of the Japanese empire; the history and memory of World War II; and Japan's relationship with Asia in the postwar period. In 2004, Dr. Yang was appointed a Historical Consultant to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group at the U.S. National Archives. He has served as the Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, and also taught at University of Tokyo, Waseda University (Japan) and Yonsei University (Korea). The founding co-director of the Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia Pacific program based at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, he is currently working on historians and reconciliation in postwar Europe and East Asia as well as energy resources in the Japanese empire. Dr. Yang is the author of Technology of Empire: Telecommunications and Japanese Expansion, 1883-1945, and has co-edited several books.

Pavel Devyatkin is a Senior Associate and Leadership Group member at The Arctic Institute. His research areas include Russian Arctic policy, US-Russia and US-China relations, international cooperation, governance, security, and diplomacy. He provides consultations to companies and academic institutions on Arctic affairs. A Visiting Lecturer and PhD Fellow at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Pavel teaches BA and MA courses on international relations. He was a researcher at the Stanford US-Russia Forum and United Nations (UNCCD) and is a graduate of LSE and UCL.

Richard A. Moss is a professor in the Russian Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College's Center for Naval Warfare Studies. He also teaches in the Halsey Charlie Group Advanced Research Program. His current research focuses on the post-Soviet Russian Navy. Dr. Moss also specializes on U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War and is an expert on the Nixon presidential recordings. Professor Moss previously served as a government and contract military capabilities analyst with the Department of Defense and as an historian with the Department of State. The University Press of Kentucky published his book, Nixon's Back Channel to Moscow: Confidential Diplomacy and Detente in January 2017.

Michael Petersen is an expert in Russian military strategy and operations as well as net assessments of high-intensity conflict. Previously, he served as senior advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations and was director of the Russia Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College. Prior to these appointments, he served with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council. Petersen is the author of books, articles, and essays on Russian maritime and naval strategy, military intelligence history, and strategic weapons history. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland, College Park, and is proficient in German and Russian.

Peter Lorge is a historian of 10th and 11th century China, with particular interest in Chinese military, political and social history. He is author of The Reunification of China: Peace Through War under the Song Dynasty (Cambridge, 2015), Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2012), The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China (Routledge, 2005). Lorge is co-editor with Kaushik Roy of Chinese and Indian Warfare: From the Classical Age to 1870 (Routledge, 2014), and editor of Debating War in Chinese History (Brill, 2013), Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (The Chinese University Press, 2011), and Warfare in China to 1600 (Ashgate, 2005). His book series with Routledge, Asian States and Empires, has published thirteen books.