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Expert Bio
Joshua Kurlantzick is senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is the author, most recently, of Beijing's Global Media Offensive: China's Uneven Campaign To Influence Asia and the World. Kurlantzick was previously a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he studied Southeast Asian politics and economics and China's relations with Southeast Asia, including Chinese investment, aid, and diplomacy. Previously, he was a fellow at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy and a fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy. He is currently focused on China’s relations with Southeast Asia, and China’s approach to soft and sharp power, including state-backed media and information efforts and other components of soft and sharp power. He is also working on issues related to the rise of global populism, populism in Asia, and the impact of COVID-19 on illiberal populism and political freedom overall.
Kurlantzick has also served as a columnist for Time, a correspondent for The Economist based in Bangkok, a special correspondent for the New Republic, a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, and a contributing writer for Mother Jones. He also serves on the editorial board of Current History.
He is the winner of the Luce Scholarship for journalism in Asia and was selected as a finalist for the Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism in Asia. His first book, Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World, was nominated for CFR’s 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award. He is also the author of A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA, State Capitalism: How the Return of Statism is Transforming the World, and Democracy in Retreat: The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline in Representative Government.
Kurlantzick received his BA in political science from Haverford College.
Affiliations:
- Freedom House, contributor to Freedom in the World
- Japan Times, monthly contributor
- Pinter Politik, contributor
- World Politics Review, monthly contributor
- Diplomat Risk Intelligence, participant in expert network
- GLG Network, participant in expert network
Featured
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The electoral strength of opposition pro-democracy parties poses a significant threat to Thailand's ruling military-linked government and monarchy.
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Opposition pro-democracy parties, particularly the progressive Move Forward party, demonstrated strong public support in Thailand's election.
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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s visit to Washington represents a significant deepening of the U.S.-Philippines relationship. But many other Southeast Asian countries are increasingly turning to China.
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Thailand's upcoming election may see an opposition victory, but the military and monarchy are unlikely to respect the result.
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China has used both soft and sharp power to strengthen its media influence in India and around the globe.
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Beijing has increasingly targeted university campuses to wield sharp influence worldwide.
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Beijing has acquired control of both the traditional media sector and innovative communication technologies.
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Laos is experiencing a level of popular unrest unseen in decades.
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Thailand’s upcoming elections may not be free and fair.
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The military junta in Myanmar wants to hold elections this year to legitimize its rule, but its civil war could make a vote nearly impossible.
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China has sought to harness global information networks to influence perceptions of itself.
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China's attempts to influence the 2018 Malaysian election were unsuccessful. But it may be learning from its failures.
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Although China has attempted to influence the politics of Southeast Asian countries through social media, disinformation spread via local sources also poses a serious threat.
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As China expanded its influence efforts beyond its near neighbors, New Zealand's liberal democracy became a prime target.
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China is attempting to build a media and information superpower.
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China's efforts to influence Thailand's media environment have bolstered the Thai military and monarchy.
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Malaysia's fractious parliamentary politics present significant governance challenges to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
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Beijing has utilized a wide range of tools to influence domestic politics in India.
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Beijing has directed its efforts to influence Chinese language media across the globe, limiting the ability of Chinese language speakers to access impartial media coverage of the Chinese government.
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The Chinese government's influence efforts have often targeted educational institutions overseas.
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Taiwan has often found itself on the front lines of political influence efforts by the Chinese Communist Party.
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Despite significant investment, China's attempts to cultivate influence in Central and Eastern Europe have faltered in recent years.
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Under President Xi Jinping, China has invested in state media outlets to influence the opinion of foreign publics, including Canada.
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China has greatly increased funding for its state media outlets in order to influence the politics and societies of other countries.