Jason Abbott is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Montclair State University. He grew up working class in Altrincham, northern England, earned a PhD from Nottingham Trent, and built an academic career across three countries and five books. He has held appointments at SOAS, the University of Surrey, and the University of Louisville, where he held an Endowed Chair in Asian Democracy, and has appeared as an analyst for the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and NPR. He lives in New Jersey with a border collie named Baxter and still thinks the Pennine Way is the finest walk in the world. If you enjoy his writing, you can read more at his Substack, The Balance of Power, covering US foreign policy, Indo-Pacific security, and great power competition: profjabbott.substack.com