Edward A. McCord

Edward A. McCord is Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University, specializing in Chinese history. He is the author of The Power of the Gun: The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism (University of California Press) and Military Force and Elite Power in the Making of Modern China (Routhledge). He has published numerous articles, focusing mainly on the role and impact of the military in modern Chinese society, in journals such as Modern China, Twentieth-Century China, and Modern Asian Studies. Besides teaching graduate and undergraduate students in modern and pre-modern Chinese history at The George Washington University, Professor McCord lectures frequently on Chinese history at the Foreign Service Institute and the Smithsonian Institution's Campus on the Mall program. He is also a member of the editorial board of Modern China.

Professor McCord received his Ph.D. in Chinese history from the University of Michigan in 1985. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California-Berkeley, he was an assistant professor of history at the University of Florida in Gainesville Florida, where he received several awards for undergraduate teaching. In 1994 he moved to The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., as an associate professor, also serving as Director of the University's East Asian Studies Program. In the period from January 1998 to June 2006 he served successively as the Associate Dean for Students and Curriculum, Faculty and Research, Faculty and Student Affairs, and Senior Associate Dean for Management and Planning for GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He is also the founder and Director of the Elliott School's Taiwan Education and Research Program. From September 2011 to June 2014, he served as the Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies.