Ely Ratner is an Associate Political Scientist at the Rand Corporation, where he performs research on a broad range of national security issues, including China, the Middle East, counterinsurgency, and nuclear weapons. Ely has worked as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he covered the Middle East. More recently, he lived in Beijing, studied Mandarin, and wrote about the rise of China. He has published articles on China, globalization, democratization, international relations among developing nations, and the security implications of American unipolarity. His commentary has appeared in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle. He received his PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.