Professional Affiliation

Professor of Political Science and International Studies, Washington College

Expert Bio

Andrew L. Oros is Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. His latest research project examines how demographic change – such as shrinking populations, aging societies, and gender imbalances – will affect the security environment in the Indo-Pacific region and, in particular, the network of US alliances and partnerships in the region. He conducted research for his last book, Japan’s Security Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2017), as an invited research fellow at Japan’s National Institute of Defense Studies and as a Japan Foundation Abe Fellow at Keio University in Tokyo and Peking University in Beijing. He also is the author of two other books and numerous articles and book chapters on issues related to East Asian security and Japanese politics. He serves as an executive editor of the scholarly journal Asian Security. Oros earned his Ph.D in political science at Columbia University.

Wilson Center Project

America’s Aging Allies in Asia: National Security and Demographic Change in the Indo-Pacific

Project Summary

The shrinking and aging populations of US allies and partners across Asia – and soon of the principal security challenge to them, China – are altering security dynamics in the region. The United States is the demographic exception in the developed world and among the existing great powers but must adjust to the demographic decline of its traditional allies. Dr. Oros’s initial research – including field research in Japan and South Korea, with more planned for elsewhere in Asia in 2020/21 – suggests that the implications of demographic change that are posited in the existing literature are not as straightforward as they appear. Demographic change is an important factor, but so are differences in security threats, the availability of technological solutions, and whether political and social systems are willing and able to adapt – areas that he will explore further during his fellowship period at the Wilson Center from September 2020 through May 2021.

Major Publications

Japan’s Security Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2017)

Normalizing Japan: Politics, Identity & the Evolution of Security Practice (Stanford University Press, 2008)

Global Security Watch: Japan (Praeger Press, 2010)