{{Short description|American political scientist (born 1956)}} {{Infobox academic | name = Aaron L. Friedberg | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|4|16}} | birth_place = Pittsburgh, PA | death_date = | death_place = | education = Harvard University (AB, PhD) | spouse = | main_interests = {{hlist | Political science | International relations| Chinese foreign policy}} | work_institution = Princeton University | organizations = Princeton School of Public and International Affairs | module={{Infobox Chinese|child=yes|showflag=j|t=范亞倫|s=范亚伦|p= Fàn Yàlún}} }} '''Aaron Louis Friedberg''' (born April 16, 1956)<ref name=CAO>{{cite book|title=Aaron Louis Friedberg|work=Contemporary Authors Online|publisher=Gale|location=Detroit|year=2006}}</ref> is an American political scientist currently serving as the Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Friedberg served from 2003 to 2005 in the office of the Vice President of the United States as deputy assistant for national-security affairs and director of policy planning.
After receiving his PhD in government from Harvard University, Friedberg joined the Princeton University faculty in 1987 and was appointed professor of politics and international affairs in 1999. He has served as Director of Princeton's Research Program in International Security at the School of Public and International Affairs, and is the acting director of the Center of International Studies at Princeton.<ref>https://politics.princeton.edu/people/aaron-friedberg</ref> Friedberg is a former fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbr.org/publications/bulletin/no16march2002/march2002.html |title=NBR Bulletin |website=NPR |date=March 2002 |access-date=2004-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040814135038/http://www.nbr.org/publications/bulletin/no16march2002/march2002.html |archive-date=2004-08-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Counselors for the National Bureau of Asian Research's Pyle Center for Northeast Asian Studies.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbr.org/research/group.aspx?id=fea49944-0fd2-4d0c-86d0-2bc059ac5a4d |title=NBR's Pyle Center for Northeast Asian Studies |access-date=2009-08-26 |archive-date=2018-09-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907100529/http://nbr.org/research/group.aspx?id=fea49944-0fd2-4d0c-86d0-2bc059ac5a4d |url-status=live }}</ref>
In September 2001, Friedberg began a nine-month residential appointment as the first Henry Alfred Kissinger Scholar at the Library of Congress. During his tenure he researched "the rise of Asia and its implications for America." Apart from many articles for ''Commentary'' magazine, Friedberg has written several books on foreign relations.
He was one of the signers of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) documents ''Statement of Principles'' (June 3, 1997) and a letter on terrorism submitted to President George W. Bush (September 20, 2001). His name has been connected to the Aspen Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}
Friedberg represented the Romney campaign in his capacity as the campaign's National Security Advisor during a debate on US policy toward China in October 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?309030-1/us-china-policy |title=U.S. China Policy |access-date=2015-01-27 |archive-date=2015-01-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128133102/http://www.c-span.org/video/?309030-1/us-china-policy |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 2020, Friedberg, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/ |title=Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden |date=20 August 2020 |website=Defending Democracy Together |access-date=26 August 2021 |archive-date=20 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820210633/https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Friedberg co-founded the Alexander Hamilton Society, a non-partisan membership organization based in DC, along with Dan Blumenthal and Roy Katzovicz in March 2010. He continues to serve on its board of directors.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is the Alexander Hamilton Society |url=https://www.alexanderhamiltonsociety.org/who-we-are |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=AHS |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231115171537/https://www.alexanderhamiltonsociety.org/who-we-are |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cross-Strait Security Situation {{!}} CSIS Events |url=https://www.csis.org/events/cross-strait-security-situation |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=www.csis.org |language=en |archive-date=2022-06-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621023953/https://www.csis.org/events/cross-strait-security-situation |url-status=live }}</ref>
== International relations philosophy ==
Although Friedberg's international relations philosophy is rooted in concern for the structural organization of power characteristic of the realist school of international relations, his scholarship also incorporates theoretical insights from other international relations traditions, including liberal institutionalism and constructivism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Friedberg|first=Aaron L.|date=1993|title=Ripe for Rivalry: Prospects for Peace in a Multipolar Asia|journal=International Security|volume=18|issue=3|pages=5–33|doi=10.2307/2539204|issn=0162-2889|jstor=2539204|s2cid=154502784}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Friedberg|first=Aaron L.|title=The Future of U.S.-China Relations: Is Conflict Inevitable?|journal=International Security|volume=30|issue=2|year=2005|pages=7–45|jstor=4137594 }}</ref> Friedberg's stance has been described by fellow scholar Thomas Christensen as a ‘positive-sum’ approach to international relations.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Christensen|first=Thomas J.|date=July 2006|title=Fostering Stability or Creating a Monster? The Rise of China and U.S. Policy toward East Asia|journal=International Security|language=en|volume=31|issue=1|pages=81–126|doi=10.1162/isec.2006.31.1.81|issn=0162-2889|jstor=4137540|s2cid=57571543}}</ref> Hence, unlike more pessimistic realist scholars, Friedberg, in a seminal article published in International Security in 1993, advocated continued U.S. engagement in East Asia to serve as a stabilizing force until regional economic integration and multilateral institutions had time to develop.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Friedberg|first=Aaron L.|date=1993|title=Ripe for Rivalry: Prospects for Peace in a Multipolar Asia|journal=International Security|volume=18|issue=3|pages=5–33|doi=10.2307/2539204|issn=0162-2889|jstor=2539204|s2cid=154502784}}</ref> Thus, in contrast to traditional realpolitik scholars, Friedberg believes that conflict is not inevitable in East Asia as China continues to develop as long as multilateral institutions and economic integration are used as tools to manage security dilemmas.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Friedberg|first=Aaron L.|title=The Future of U.S.-China Relations: Is Conflict Inevitable?|journal=International Security|volume=30|issue=2|year=2005|pages=7–45|jstor=4137594 }}</ref> Since the 2010s, however, Friedberg has adopted a more sceptical assessment of China's foreign policy posture,<ref>Friedberg, Aaron L. “An Answer to Aggression: How to Push Back Against Beijing.” Foreign Affairs 99, no. 5 (2020): 150–64. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26985736.</ref><ref>Friedberg, Aaron L. “Hegemony with Chinese Characteristics.” The National Interest, no. 114 (2011): 18–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42896387.</ref> increasingly foregrounding Beijing's revisionist ambitions and characterising it as a major geostrategic competitor to the United States.<ref>Friedberg, Aaron L. 2012. A Contest for Supremacy : China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia. New York; London: W.W. Norton.</ref>
== Publications ==
=== Books === * ''[https://archive.org/details/wearytitanbritai0000frie The Weary Titan: Britain and The Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905]'' (Princeton University Press, 1988) * ''In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America's Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) * ''A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011) * ''Beyond Air-Sea Battle: The Debate Over US Military Strategy in Asia'' (Routledge, 2014) * ''Getting China Wrong'' (Polity, 2022)
=== Articles === Six Lessons from a Decade of Asia Strategy Simulations, ''German Marshall Fund'', June 22, 2022<ref>{{Cite web |title=Six Lessons from a Decade of Asia Strategy Simulations {{!}} German Marshall Fund of the United States |url=https://www.gmfus.org/news/six-lessons-decade-asia-strategy-simulations |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=www.gmfus.org |language=en |archive-date=2023-09-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921084446/https://www.gmfus.org/news/six-lessons-decade-asia-strategy-simulations |url-status=live }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Library resources box|about=no|by=yes}} *[https://foreignpolicy.com/author/aaron-friedberg/ Aaron Friedberg's blog at ForeignPolicy.com] *[http://www.nbr.org/publications/element.aspx?id=458 The Geopolitics of Strategic Asia, 2000–2020] in ''Strategic Asia 2010–11: Asia's Rising Power and America's Continued Purpose'' (National Bureau of Asian Research, September 2010) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20151226212253/http://www.ou.edu/uschina/SASD/2003readings/Freidberg2002Survival.pdf "11 September and the Future of Sino-American Relations"] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160213221225/http://www.choosingtolead.net/a-new-china-strategy/ A New China Strategy] - 2015 essay *{{C-SPAN|1021590}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedberg, Aaron}} Category:Political realists Category:Neoclassical realists (international relations) Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni Category:Princeton University faculty Category:Harvard University staff Category:American international relations scholars Category:Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni Category:National Bureau of Asian Research Category:Harvard University alumni