Dr James Johnson

Postdoctoral Honorary Visiting Fellow

Email: jj210@leicester.ac.uk

Twitter: @James_SJohnson

Website: http://www.jamesjohnsonphd.com

Personal details

• BA (Bristol)
• MA (Leeds)
• PhD (Leicester)

I joined the School as a Postdoctoral Honorary Visiting Fellow in July 2017. Prior to joining the School, I worked in the financial sector for two decades, the majority of which was spent in East Asia. I recently completed my PhD at Leicester, which applied the ‘Security Dilemma’ IR theoretical lens to examine Sino-American security relations during the Obama Presidency. My research and teaching interests relate closely to the themes I explored in my thesis, which integrate IR and security & strategic studies sub-fields with a broader multi-disciplinary focus.My latest projects focus on three interrelated multidisciplinary themes: (1) ‘New’ security challenges posed by emerging technologies - especially artificial intelligence; (2) developing theoretical frameworks to conceptualize shifting great and rising power dynamics in world politics and; (3) US policy responses to rising powers in a multipolar world order. My latest book project is titled "The AI Revolution & the Future of Warfare: Great Power Competition & Strategic Stability".

Publications

Book

• 'Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Warfare': USA, China, and Strategic Stability' (Manchester University Press, Forthcoming).
• ‘The U.S.-China Military & Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency’ (Palgrave Macmillan, ‘New Security Challenges Series’ 2018).

Journal articles

• ‘Artificial Intelligence & Future Warfare': Implications for International Security’ - Defense & Security Analysis, Vol. 35, Issue 2 (Forthcoming, 2019).
• ‘Chinese Evolving Approaches to Nuclear ‘War-fighting’: An Emerging Intense US-China Security Dilemma in the Nuclear Domain and Threats to Crisis Stability in the Asia Pacific’ - Asian Security (Available Online, 2018)
• ‘China’s ‘Guam Express’ and ‘Carrier Killers’: The Anti-Ship Asymmetric Challenge to the U.S. in the Western Pacific, and Security Dilemma Explanations’ - Comparative Strategy, Vol. 36, No. 4 (2017): 319-332.

• ‘China’s Vision of the Future Network-Centric Battlefield: Cyber, Space and Electromagnetic Asymmetric Challenges to the U.S.’ -Comparative Strategy Vol. 38, Issue 1 (Forthcoming, 2019).
• ‘Washington’s Perceptions and Misperceptions of Beijing’s Anti-access Area-denial (A2/AD) ‘Strategy’:  Implications for Military Escalation Control and Strategic Stability’ - The Pacific Review, Vol. 20, Issue 3 (2017):  271-288.

Book chapters

• ‘The Incumbent Unipole and its Allies: Multipolar Challenges to U.S. Dominance in Artificial Intelligence’, in Benjamin Zala (ed), Interrogating a Multipolar Order: The Use of Multipolar Narratives in National Contexts (Forthcoming, 2019).
• ‘China’s Nuclear Modernisation: The Evolution of Chinese Nuclear Doctrine, Strategic Ambiguities and Implications for Sino-U.S. Relations’, in M Kouhi-Esfahani (eds), Nuclear politics in Asia (Routledge, 2018) co-authored with Dr. Andrew Futter.

Latest research projects

• ‘AI and Strategic Stability: Implications for nuclear security, deterrence, and escalation in future warfare’.
• ‘AI and Non-nuclear Challenges to Strategic Stability: Complex and dangerous escalation dynamics in future warfare’.
• ‘Divergent Sino-US Thinking on AI, Strategic Stability, & Future Warfare: Implications for nuclear security’

Selected professional publications

• "China’s Evolving Approach to Nuclear War-Fighting” - The Diplomat, November 2017.

• "If Trump is bluffing on North Korea, the results could be catastrophic” - The Conversation, August 2017.

• ‘The Shadow of an Unrestrainable Military-Technological Security Dilemma: U.S.-China relations at a dangerous crossroads’ - Think Leicester, July 2017.
• ‘Is China Moving Towards a Nuclear ‘War-Fighting’ Posture?’ The Institute of Asia & Pacific Studies (IAPS), University of Nottingham, June 2017.
• ‘High-tech China-US arms race threatens to destabilize East Asia’- The Conversation, May 2017.
• ‘China’s Vision of the Future Networked Battlefield: Cyber, Space and Electronic Warfare Challenges to the US in the Western Pacific’ - The Diplomat, April 2017.
• ‘China’s Missiles Threaten New Arms Race’ - Newsweek, March 2017.
• ‘China’s anti-ship missiles threaten an arms race in the Western Pacific’ - The Conversation, March 2017.
• ‘China's new missile could threaten an arms war in the Pacific’ - The Business Insider, March 2017.
• ‘Is China moving towards a nuclear ‘Warfighting’ posture?’ - The Conversation, February 2017.
• ‘Nuclear No First Use and President Obama’s Legacy’ - Think Leicester Interdisciplinary Research Project at the University of Leicester, August 2016 - with Dr. Andrew Futter.

Research

My research combines a regional focus on the Asia-Pacific with a thematic focus on emerging technologies and future warfare. My latest projects focus on three interrelated themes: (1) ‘New’ security challenges posed by emerging technologies - especially artificial intelligence; (2) developing theoretical frameworks to conceptualize shifting great and rising power dynamics in world politics and; (3) U.S. policy responses to rising powers in a multipolar world order.

Supervision

I am interested in supervising projects in the broad areas of Security & Strategic Studies, U.S.-China Relations; Rising Powers; Nuclear Strategy; Chinese Foreign Policy; and East Asian Security.