Bio

James DeShaw Rae is professor of politics and director of the Asian Studies Program at California State University, Sacramento. James is from Iowa and attained his bachelor's degree in Political Science at the University of Iowa. He formerly worked in Washington, DC as a researcher at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a non-partisan think tank funded by the U.S. Congress to help prevent, manage and resolve international conflict. While there, he completed a master's degree in International Affairs at American University. He received his PhD in Political Science at the University of Hawai'i. He is the author of Analyzing the Drone Debates: Targeted Killing, Remote Warfare, and Military Technology (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice in East Timor (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2009). His research focuses on peace, justice, human rights, and international law, as well as politics and national identity in East and Southeast Asia. He has published in Global Change, Peace, and Security; Peace Review; Asian Politics and Policy; Eurasian Geography and Economics; and Ethnic Studies Report. James was twice a Fulbright Scholar in Beijing, China: at China Foreign Affairs University (2011-12) and at Beijing Foreign Studies University (2017-18).

Courses that I teach

• Pols 35: World Politics
• Pols 127: International Law
• Pols 130: International Politics
• Pols 131: International Organization
• Pols 137: Nationalism
• Pols 145: Asian Politics
• Pols/Asia 146: US-China Relations
• Pols 162: American Film and Culture in the Nuclear Age
• Asia 151: Genocide in Southeast Asia

Publications

• James DeShaw Rae. “International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor (ICIET).” In Lavinia Stan and Nadya Nedelsky, eds. The Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice. 2^nd edition. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
• Maryam Ahmad and James DeShaw Rae. “Women’s Empowerment and Peacebuilding in an Islamic Context,” in Jolyon Mitchell, Lesley Orr, Martyn Percy, S. Francesca Po, eds. Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2022): 101-111.
• James DeShaw Rae. Review of Kristen Hopewell, Clash of Powers: US-China Rivalry in Global Trade Governance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 21, no. 3 (September 2021): pp. 497-499.
• James DeShaw Rae. “With or Without Chinese Characteristics in Beijing, Wuhan, and Shenzhen: Navigating Antiquity and Modernism in Socialist China’s Urban Space.” In Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen, eds., 203-220. The City as Power: Urban Space, Place, and National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield: 2018.
• James DeShaw Rae and Xiaodan Wang. “Placing Race, Culture, and the State in Chinese National Identity: Han, Hua, or Zhongguo?” Asian Politics and Policy 8, no. 3 (July 2016): 474-493.
• James DeShaw Rae. Review of Shane Gunderson. Momentum and the East Timor Independence Movement: The Origins of America’s Debate on East Timor. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2015. Marine Corps University Journal 7, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 109-111.
• James DeShaw Rae. “Drones and a Culture of Death.” Peace Review 27, no. 4 (2015): 477-483.
• Maryam Ahmad and James DeShaw Rae. “Women, Islam, and Peacemaking in the Arab Spring.” Peace Review 27, no. 3 (2015): 312-319.
• Orhon Myadar and James DeShaw Rae. “Territorializing National Identity in Post-Socialist Mongolia: Purity, Authenticity, and Chinggis Khaan.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 55, no. 5 (2015): 560-577.
• James DeShaw Rae. “Planting Flags on the Tide: Sovereignty, Containment, and Conflict Resolution in the East and South China Seas.” İstanbul Gelişim University Journal of Social Sciences 1, no.1 (June 2014): 93-116.
• James DeShaw Rae. Analyzing the Drone Debates: Targeted Killing, Remote Warfare, and Military Technology. New York, NY: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2014. [Reviewed in London School of Economics Review of Books]
• James DeShaw Rae. “Can We Expect More Constructive Relations between the US and China after the Leadership Changes?” Euro Atlantic Quarterly 1, vol. 8 (1/2013).
• James DeShaw Rae. “Transitional Justice in Divided Societies: Using Hybrid Courts to Manage Conflict.” In William J. Lahneman and Joseph R. Rudolph, Jr., eds., 127-144. From Mediation to Nation-Building: Third Parties and the Management of Communal Conflict. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013.
• James DeShaw Rae. “International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor (ICIET).” In Lavinia Stan and Nadya Nedelsky, eds. The Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
• James DeShaw Rae. “Promoting Human Rights through Hybrid Courts: The Serious Crimes Process in East Timor.” In Lilian A. Barria and Steven D. Roper, eds., 179-194. The Development of Institutions of Human Rights: A Comparative Study. London, U.K.: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2010. 
• James DeShaw Rae. Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice in East Timor. Boulder, CO: First Forum Press/Lynne Rienner, 2009. [Reviewed in Perspectives on Politics]
• James Rae. Review of Victor Peskin. International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Peace Review 21, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 420-425.
• James Rae. Review of Vincent Kelly Pollard. Globalization, Democratization, and Asian Leadership: Power Sharing, Foreign Policy and Society in the Philippines and Japan. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2004. Political Studies Review 5, no. 2 (May 2007): 313-314. 
• James Rae. “War Crimes Accountability: Justice and Reconciliation in Cambodia and East Timor.” Global Change, Peace, and Security 15, no. 2 (June 2003).
• Cynthia Irvin and James Rae. “Spain and the Basque Country.” In John Darby, The Effects of Violence on Peace Processes, 77-86. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2001.
• John Darby and James Rae. “Peace Processes from 1988-98: Changing Patterns.” Ethnic Studies Report 17, no. 1 (January 1999): 45-64.
• Daniel Serwer, Lauren Van Metre, and James Rae. “Montenegro-And More-At Risk.” Special Report No. 42, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1999.

Research Projects/Interests

• Human Rights, War Crimes, and Transitional Justice
• Peace and Conflict Resolution
• Ethnic Conflict, Nationalism, and Political Violence
• East and Southeast Asian Politics 

Curriculum Vita