Andrew Mertha
Andrew Mertha is an American political scientist and the Inaugural Director of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is a scholar of Chinese and Cambodian politics with a particular emphasis on bureaucracy, institutions, Leninist Party Systems, policy making and implementation, and China–United States relations. Mertha speaks Khmer, Mandarin, French, and Hungarian. He is one of a small number of American scholars on China-Cambodia relations due to his proficiency in Khmer. Biography. Mertha earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan followed by a  Doctor of Philosophy in the same subject. Mertha has worked and researched in China and Cambodia: he lived in China for seven years as an English teacher (1988–1989), a representative for a toy company (1991–1994, 1995, and 1996), and a scholar (from 1998). He has been conducting field and archival work in Cambodia since 2009. Mertha joined the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 2018 and served as the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation from 2019 to 2021. At SAIS, he teaches courses such as Leadership in China and Contemporary Chinese politics . Before he joined SAIS, he was a Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University from 2008 to 2018. He was also the director of Cornell's China and Asia-Pacific Studies programs and a core faculty member in the East Asia and Southeast Asia programs. From 2001 to 2008, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science/Program in International and Area Studies at the Washington University in St. Louis. Mertha has authored three monographs: "The Politics of Piracy: Intellectual Property in Contemporary China" (Cornell University Press, 2005), "China’s Water  Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change" (Cornell University Press, 2008), and "Brothers in Arms: Chinese Aid to the Khmer Rouge", 1975–1979 (Cornell University Press, 2014). He published an edited volume, "May Ehara’s Svay: A Cambodian Village", with an Introduction by Judy Ledgerwood, in 2018. In 2006, Mertha testified for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and briefed the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He was part of congressional delegation to Beijing, Xinjiang, and Shanghai to discuss terrorism and narcotics trafficking. Mertha is on the board of directors of the Center for Khmer Studies, the only American Overseas  Research Center in mainland Southeast Asia. He is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and an alumnus of its Public Intellectuals Program, 2008–2010, a fellowship program that aims to strengthen links among U.S. academics, policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public to increase Americans' understanding of China. He is also a member of the American Political Science Association, Association for Asian Studies, and International Studies Association and sits on several editorial committees of "Journal of Comparative Politics", "The China Quarterly", and "Asian Survey".