John J. Chin

I am an assistant teaching professor in the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). I previously served as a research coordinator and post-doctoral fellow at CMU. In AY 2020-21, I was a non-resident post-doctoral fellow with the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict.

My research focuses on technologies of rebellion (coups d’état, self-coups, mass protest and nonviolent revolution, and assassinations), authoritarian politics, comparative democratization, China's political development, forecasting political instability, and cross-national dataset construction for political science. I am the lead author of an Historical Dictionary of Modern Coups D'état (with Joseph Wright and David Carter, Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). 

My research has been published in the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Frontiers in Political Science, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Chinese Political Science, and the Texas National Security Review. 

I have also written for general audiences in the Brown Journal of World Affairs, The Conversation, The Diplomat, the Duck of Minerva, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, the Journal of Democracy, Lawfare, The Loop, the Modern War Institute, Political Violence at a Glance, The Monkey Cage, the National Interest, the Review of Democracy, the SAIS Review of International Affairs, Waging Nonviolence, War on the Rocks, and the Washington Post. 

My teaching interests are in political science, especially international relations and comparative politics. I regularly teach the following courses: Introduction to Political Science, International Relations, Diplomacy and Statecraft, Nonviolent Conflict and Revolution, and The Future of Democracy. I also teach courses (irregularly) on international human rights. In the past I have also taught courses on civil-military relations, writing for political science and policy, and collaborative research in political science.

I hold a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University (2017), an M.P.P. from the University of Michigan (2008), and a B.A. in Political Science and Chinese from the University of Notre Dame (2006). Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as an international affairs analyst at the Congressional Budget Office (2008-2010). I also have prior policy experience at the Rand Corporation, U.S. Treasury Department, U.S. State Department, and Atlantic Council of the United States.

You can contact me by e-mail at jjchin[at]andrew.cmu.edu. My handle is @johnchinphd on the site formerly known as Twitter.