Isaac Kardon is an international security scholar and geoeconomics analyst with over 15 years of experience conducting advanced research and advising senior public- and private-sector leaders. He is a leading American sinologist, specializing in Chinese maritime strategy and industrial policy.

He is adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and has served in a range of academic and analytic roles, most recently as senior fellow in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he was assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College (China Maritime Studies Institute), and post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University.

Kardon’s writing has been published in the New York Times, Financial Times, International Security, The China Quarterly, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Naval War College Review. His research has been cited in USTR Section 301 investigations and quoted in major media outlets including The Economist, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal. He has testified six times before the U.S Congress as an expert on Chinese maritime affairs.

His first book, China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order was published by Yale University Press in 2023 and has been reviewed in Foreign Affairs, The Economist, and Foreign Policy.

His current book project is The Great Red Fleet: How the China Ocean Shipping Company Made China Great Again, telling the story of how Chinese cargo is reshaping the global system.