Johnston Receives Rare Internal Tenure

Alastair Iain Johnston, formerly Loeb associate professor of government, has been granted tenure in the government department.

Johnson's research and teaching focuses on East Asian foreign policy and China in particular, including work on China's compliance with international regimes and Chinese conflict management behavior.

He is the author of one book and numerous articles and papers on Chinese international relations.

Johnston's colleagues this week said his work on East Asian foreign policy is unique in the field.

"Iain Johnston is unquestionably the leading specialist to combine enormous expertise on Chinese foreign relations with a superb knowledge of International Relations theory," Government Department Chair Roderick MacFarquhar wrote in an e-mail message.

Rosovsky Professor of Government Elizabeth Perry agreed that Johnston, who is currently on leave teaching at Stanford, will bring unique and important skills to the government department.

Perry, who is also director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, said she believes Johnston is "quite unusual, because there are very few theorists of Chinese international relations who also have a strong grounding in the methods of social science."

Johnston could not be reached for comment this week. MacFarquhar said Johnston will take the title Professor of Government.

Johnston received his bachelor's degree in international relations and history from the University of Toronto in 1981, his master's in East Asian studies from Harvard in 1985, and his doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan in 1993.

He was appointed to an associate professorship at Harvard in 1996 and has taught several courses here on Chinese foreign policy, nuclear learning and international relations.

Johnston received a MacArthur Fellowship in international peace and security in 1991 and is a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, among other committees.

Perry says she believes Johnston's "serious devotion to teaching and exemplary teaching record" will continue to be invaluable assets to his students.

MacFarquhar agreed that Johnston has clearly shown over the last several years that he is "a first-class undergraduate and graduate teacher...and that is very important to the department."

Only one other professor, Andrew Moravcsik, was granted tenure this year in the government department. Moravcsik works primarily in the field of international political economy.

Johnston is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford and is working on his second book, which will test models of socialization in Chinese arms control and international environment policies.