CFR Welcomes Joseph Torigian as Senior Fellow for Asia Studies

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Joseph Torigian to the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank, as senior fellow for Asia studies.  

Dr. Torigian is an associate professor at American University’s School of International Service and a center associate at the University of Michigan’s Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. At CFR, his work will focus on the politics of authoritarian regimes with a specific focus on elite power struggles, civil-military relations, grand strategy, China, and Russia. Dr. Torigian began his career at CFR, working as a research associate from 2006 to 2008 and later as a Stanton nuclear security fellow from 2019 to 2020. 

“I’m delighted to welcome Joseph back to the Council,” said CFR President Michael Froman. “A noted scholar of Chinese politics, Joseph brings to CFR a wealth of knowledge and expertise on the inner workings of the Chinese Communist party and its cadres, authoritarian political systems, and the China-Russia relationship at a critical time for the Council’s work to enhance the United States’ understanding of China and the shifting international order.” 

Before his time at American University and the University of Michigan, Dr. Torigian was a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a global fellow at the Wilson Center’s history and public policy program. Prior to those positions, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton and Harvard University’s China and the world program, a postdoctoral and predoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and a predoctoral fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies.  

He is the author of Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles After Stalin and Mao (Yale University Press, 2022) and The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun (Stanford University Press, 2025). His work has been quoted in several outlets, such as BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, the Economist, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the New Yorker, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. 

Dr. Torigian holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

To request an interview with Dr. Torigian or another CFR fellow, please contact [email protected].