Dr. Phillip C. Saunders is the Director of the INSS Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs and a Distinguished Research Fellow at National Defense University. He is also an Adjunct Instructor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He previously worked at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey from 1999-2003, where he directed the East Asia Nonproliferation Program in the Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and served as an officer in the United States Air Force from 1989-1993. Dr. Saunders received an A.B. in History from Harvard University and an M.P.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the Princeton School of International and Public Affairs.
Dr. Saunders is co-author with Joel Wuthnow of China’s Quest for Military Supremacy (Polity Books, 2025) and with David Gompert of The Paradox of Power: Sino-American Strategic Restraint in an Era of Vulnerability (NDU Press, 2011). He has edited nine books, including Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan (NDU Press, 2022) and The PLA Beyond Borders: Chinese Military Operations in Regional and Global Context (NDU Press, 2021). Dr. Saunders also edits the INSS China Strategic Perspectives monograph series and co-authored recent monographs on China’s Military Diplomacy (June 2025) and Discerning the Drivers of China’s Nuclear Force Development: Models, Indicators, and Data (July 2023).
Dr. Saunders has published articles in leading international relations, international security, Asian studies, and China journals including International Security, Journal of Strategic Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Survival, Joint Force Quarterly, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, and Pacific Review. He recently published a guest essay “Xi Can’t Trust His Own Military” in the New York Times and has also written for Foreign Policy, War on the Rocks, China Brief, The Diplomat, and The National Interest. His current research agenda includes projects on China-Russia military exercises, China’s nuclear modernization, U.S.-China strategic competition, and an edited book analyzing China’s strategic relationships.
Books
- Joel Wuthnow and Phillip C. Saunders, China’s Quest for Military Supremacy (Hoboken, NJ: Polity Press, 2025).
- Joel Wuthnow, Derek Grossman, Phillip C. Saunders, Andrew Scobell, and Andrew N.D. Yang, eds., Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan (Washington, DC: NDU Press, 2022).
- Joel Wuthnow, Arthur S. Ding, Phillip C. Saunders, Andrew Scobell, and Andrew N.D. Yang, eds., The PLA Beyond Borders: Chinese Military Operations in Regional and Global Context (Washington, DC: NDU Press, 2021).
- Phillip C. Saunders, Arthur S. Ding, Andrew Scobell, Andrew N.D. Yang, and Joel Wuthnow, eds., Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA: Assessing Chinese Military Reforms (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 2019).
- Phillip C. Saunders and Andrew Scobell, eds., PLA Influence on China’s National Security Policymaking (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015).
- David C. Gompert and Phillip C. Saunders, The Paradox of Power: Sino-American Strategic Restraint in an Era of Vulnerability (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 2011).
Publications
- Lauren Edson and Phillip C. Saunders, “Rightsizing the PLA Air Force: Revisiting an Analytic Framework,” Joint Force Quarterly 118 (July 2025), 10-21.
- Phillip C. Saunders and Melodie Ha, China’s Military Diplomacy, China Strategic Perspectives 19 (June 2025).
- Joel Wuthnow and Dr. Phillip C. Saunders, “More Red but Still Expert: Party-Army Relations under Xi Jinping,” Journal of Contemporary China, September 28, 2024.
- Phillip C. Saunders, “China,” in Jeffrey A. Larsen and M. Shane Smith, eds., Arms Control at a Crossroads: Renewal or Demise? (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2024), 91-110.
- Phillip C. Saunders, “The Military Factor in US-China Strategic Competition,” in Evan S. Medeiros, ed., Cold Rivals: The New Era of US-China Strategic Competition (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2023), 205-232.
- David C. Logan and Phillip C. Saunders, Discerning the Drivers of China’s Nuclear Force Development: Models, Indicators, and Data, China Strategic Perspectives 18 (July 2023).
- Phillip C. Saunders and David C. Logan, “The Implications of the PLA’s Nuclear Expansion and Modernization for China’s Crisis Behavior” in Roy D. Kamphausen, ed., China’s Military Decision-making in Crisis and Conflict (Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2023), 151-174.
- Kristin Gunness and Phillip C. Saunders, Averting Escalation and Avoiding War: Revisiting the Lessons of 1995-1996, China Strategic Perspectives 17 (December 2022).
- Joel Wuthnow and Phillip C. Saunders, Chinese Military Reform in the Age of Xi Jinping: Drivers, Challenges, and Implications, China Strategic Perspectives 10 (March 2017).