Global and International Studies Building, 4081
Research Summary
John D. Ciorciari has research interests in international politics and international law. Much of his work focuses on international politics in the Indo-Pacific region. His first book, The Limits of Alignment (2010), explored the foreign policy preferences of small states and middle powers navigating great-power rivalry. He has written on U.S., Chinese and Indian foreign policies and engagement in Southeast Asia, and he co-edited The Courteous Power (2021) with Kiyoteru Tsutsui, examining Japan’s distinctive approach to the region.
Ciorciari also has published widely on peacebuilding, including studies of United Nations interventions and international criminal tribunals. He is the author of Sovereignty Sharing in Fragile States (2021), examining when and how international actors have shared core governance functions with sovereign states including Cambodia, Guatemala, Lebanon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Timor Leste. He has conducted extensive research on hybrid criminal tribunals and co-authored the book Hybrid Justice (2014) with Anne Heindel, a detailed account of law and politics at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia.
Before joining IU, Ciorciari was a Professor at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, where he served as Associate Dean for Research and Policy Engagement and as director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center. He has been an academic visitor at the University of Oxford, an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, an Asia Society Fellow, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, a policy official in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of International Affairs, and an associate at the international law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell. He is a longstanding senior legal advisor to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
Educational Background
- A.B., Harvard College, 1995
- J.D., Harvard Law School, 1998
- M.Phil. in International Relations, University of Oxford (Christ Church), 2002
- D.Phil. in International Relations, University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College), 2007
Regions of Interest
- United States
- Asia
Research Topics
- U.S. foreign policy
- International relations in the Indo-Pacific region
- United Nations interventions
- International criminal law
Representative Publications
Sovereignty Sharing in Fragile States (Stanford University Press, 2021)
The Courteous Power: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Indo-Pacific Era (University of Michigan Press, 2021), co-edited with Kiyoteru Tsutsui
Hybrid Justice: The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (University of Michigan Press, 2014), co-authored with Anne Heindel
The Limits of Alignment: Southeast Asia and the Great Powers since 1975 (Georgetown University Press, 2010)