Photo of Oriana Skylar Mastro

Oriana Skylar Mastro, PhD

  • Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
  • Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science

Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall
Stanford,  CA  94305-6055

Biography

Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, nuclear dynamics, and coercive diplomacy. She is also the Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She continues to serve in the United States Air Force Reserve, for which she works as an IMA to the Policy and Posture Branch Chief at INDOPACOM J5, Camp Smith, Hawaii.

She has received numerous awards for her military service and contributions to U.S. strategy in Asia, including the 2022 Individual Reservist of the Year Award, 2020 and 2018 Meritorious Service Medal, the 2017 Air Force recognition Ribbon, and the 2016 Individual Reservist of the Year Award. She has won a number of other prestigious awards, including the 2016-2017 Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship at the Council of Foreign Relations.

She has published widely, including in International Security, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, International Studies Review, Journal of Strategic Studies, The Washington Quarterly, Survival, and Asian Security. Her book, The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime, (Cornell University Press, 2019), won the 2020 American Political Science Association International Security Section Best Book by an Untenured Faculty Member.

Prior to her appointment at Stanford in August 2020, Mastro was an assistant professor of security studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.

Her publications and commentary can be found at orianaskylarmastro.com and on Twitter @osmastro.

publications

Policy Briefs
September 2021

Military Competition With China: Harder Than the Cold War?

Author(s)
Military Competition With China: Harder Than the Cold War?
Policy Briefs
April 2021

Chinese Intentions in the South China Sea

Author(s)
Chinese Intentions in the South China Sea

Current research

In The News

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio hold a joint news conference following three-way talks at Camp David on August 18, 2023.
News

Camp David Summit Puts the Past, Present, and Future of U.S.-South Korea-Japan Relations on Display

The trilateral summit between the United States, South Korea, and Japan was an important marker in deepening coordination among the allies, but work still remains to create a solid security partnership.
Camp David Summit Puts the Past, Present, and Future of U.S.-South Korea-Japan Relations on Display
7th fleet cruisers transit Taiwan strait
Commentary

Can the U.S. Deter China? Lessons from Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine

In the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, how are Chinese strategists and scholars assessing U.S. deterrence strategy? What are the implications for Taiwan? Leading foreign affairs expert Oriana Skylar Mastro analyzes a newly translated article by a senior Chinese scholar which concludes that while the United States failed to deter Putin’s aggression, its actions in Ukraine are nonetheless impacting Beijing’s foreign policy calculations.
Can the U.S. Deter China? Lessons from Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine
Overall view of members of the Four Party Joint Military delegations in a conference room
News

Decoding Diplomacy: The Dynamics of Peace Talks and Lessons from the Vietnam War

In the 'Journal of Theoretical Politics,' Center Fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro and co-author David Siegel offer a new formal model of wartime negotiations to explain why states may choose to delay or avoid talks in favor of indirect forms of bargaining. They illustrate the model’s balance using case study evidence of North Vietnam’s approach during the Vietnam War and historical examples from other cases.
Decoding Diplomacy: The Dynamics of Peace Talks and Lessons from the Vietnam War

Selected Multimedia

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