Sheena Chestnut Greitens is Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where she directs UT’s Asia Policy Program, a joint initiative of the Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. She is also concurrently a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Chestnut Greitens’ work focuses on national security, East Asia, and authoritarian politics and foreign policy. Her first book, Dictators and their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence (Cambridge, 2016) received multiple academic awards. Her second book, on authoritarianism, security, and diaspora politics, focuses on North Korea (Cambridge University Press, Elements Series in East Asia, forthcoming 2023). She is currently finishing her third book manuscript, which examines how internal security concerns shape Chinese grand strategy.
Chestnut Greitens’ work has appeared in academic journals and edited volumes in English, Chinese, and Korean, and in major media outlets. She regularly testifies to Congress and briefs policymakers on issues related to authoritarianism and security in the Indo-Pacific. She received a Ph.D. from Harvard University; an M.Phil from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar; and a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.
