Jiakun Jack Zhang is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of California San Diego in 2018. His research explores the political economy of trade and conflict in East Asia. His dissertation examines when and why economically interdependent countries use military versus economic coercion in foreign policy disputes. Drawing upon field work in Beijing and original data on Chinese economic coercion, he focuses particularly on Chinese behavior towards its trade partners and foreign multinational companies. His research and teaching interests include international political economy, international security, Chinese politics, and U.S.-China relations. His research has been supported by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation.
