Vinod Aggarwal – Director

Vinod Aggarwal

Contact Information
BASC
552 Social Sciences Building #1970
University of California Berkeley,
CA 94720-1970

Tel: (510) 642-2817
or (510) 658-5957
BASC Fax: (510) 643-1746

vinod@berkeley.edu

Vinod (Vinnie) Aggarwal is Distinguished Professor and Alann P. Bedford Professor of Asian Studies, Travers Department of Political Science; Affiliated Professor at the Haas School of Business; and Director of the Berkeley Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Study Center (BASC) at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Business and Politics, and Chair of the U.S. Consortium of APEC Study Centers. From 1991-1994, he was Chair of the Political Economy of Industrial Societies Program at UC Berkeley. He also serves as Chief Economist for Frost & Sullivan, a global consulting firm.

He has held fellowships from the Brookings Institution, Rockefeller Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, East-West Center, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was a Japan Foundation Abe Fellow. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, the University of Geneva’s IOMBA program, INSEAD, Yonsei University, NTU Singapore, Bocconi University, Chung-Ang University, and the University of Hawaii. He is also an elected lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and founding member of the U.S. Asia Pacific Council.  

Dr. Aggarwal consults regularly with multinational corporations on strategy, trade policy, and international negotiations, including Sutherland Global Services, Merck, Russell Investments, the Investment Management Consultants Association, Cisco, Statoil, ING Clarion, Genentech, Hewlett Packard, Qualcomm, Herman Miller, Italcementi, ARCO, and Nestle. He has been a consultant to the Mexican government, Malaysian government, the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Defense Department, U.S. State Department, World Trade Organization, OECD, the Group of Thirty, FAO, IFAD, the International Labor Organization, ASEAN, and the World Bank.  In 1990, he was Special Adviser on Trade Negotiations to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and has worked with the APEC Eminent Persons Group. In 1997, he won the Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award at the Haas School of Business for PhD teaching; in 2003 he was first runner up for the Cheit Award for MBA teaching and won first place for the MBA program in 2005.

His authored books include Liberal Protectionism, International Debt Threat, Debt Games, Le Renseignement Stratégique d’Entreprise, Une Nouvelle Approche des Phénomènes Sociaux, and he has edited or co-edited Institutional Designs for a Complex World, Asia-Pacific Crossroads, Winning in Asia: European Style, Winning in Asia: Japanese Style, Winning in Asia: U.S. Style, Sovereign Debt Management, European Union Trade Strategies, The Strategic Dynamics of Latin American Trade, Bilateral Trade Agreements in the Asia Pacific, Asia’s New Institutional Architecture, Northeast Asia: Ripe for Integration?, Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific, Responding to a Resurgent Russia, and Linking Trade and Security. His latest book is Responding to the Rise of China.  He has also published over 150 articles and book chapters. His current research examines comparative regionalism in Europe, North America, and Asia, comparative industrial policy in cybersecurity, disaster management, and the political economy of great power competition.

Dr. Aggarwal received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Born in Seattle, Washington, he speaks five languages.



Content By Vinod Aggarwal – Director

Putting the Biden Administration’s “New Economic Statecraft” in Context

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director| Andrew Reddie – Deputy Director|

On Aug. 9, President Joe Biden declared (via executive order) a national emergency associated with the development of artificial intelligence, semiconductor, and quantum computing technology critical for “military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities” in “countries of concern” (read: China).

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The New Reality of Economic Statecraft

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director| Andrew Reddie – Deputy Director|

The use of economic tools in the pursuit of national-security interests has surged in the wake of growing geopolitical tensions, especially the rivalry between China and the US.

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Asia’s Middle Powers and New Economic Statecraft

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director| Seungjoo Lee|

As the articles in this cover package of Global Asia illustrate, the rivalry between China and the United States, particularly in the hightech sector, represents a heightened deployment of economic statecraft that leaves…

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Military Forces, Coercive Signals, and Disaster Response Effectiveness

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director|

Natural Hazards Review, 2021
Why do governments deploy their armed forces to respond to certain foreign natural disasters but not others?

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Security of Supply: The Determinants of State Intervention in Emerging Technology Sectors

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director| Andrew Reddie – Deputy Director|

Asia Global Papers, 2021
Scholars and policymakers have been increasingly concerned about technological competition between China and the United States over the past decade – made worse in recent months…

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Institutional Coordination in Disaster Management in the Asia Pacific

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director|

Natural Hazards Review, 2021
According to the United Nations, between 1970 and 2016, natural disasters in East Asia have killed an average of 43,000 people per year (ESCAP 2018).

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Economic Statecraft in the 21st Century: Implications for the Future of the Global Trade Regime

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director| Andrew Reddie – Deputy Director|

World Trade Review, 2021
This article introduces a special issue that examines the effects of strategic competition on the future of the global trade regime.

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Taiwan’s Trade Policies Strategies and Constraints

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director|

The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2021
Vinod K. Aggarwal examines Taiwan’s efforts to diversify its trade policy away from China, particularly its focus on securing a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States.

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Digital Currency Wars? US-China Competition and Economic Statecraft

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director| Tim Marple|

Global Asia, 2020
The importance of digital currencies is rising in a variety of economic relations across the world, ranging from basic payment systems such as Bitcoin to alternative central bank currencies.

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Toward a Bipolar Economic Order? U.S. Trade Strategy In The 21st Century

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director|

Japan’s Leadership in the Liberal International Order, 2020
Divining the eventual direction of U.S. trade policy might best be left to sorcerers, particularly with the dramatic uncertainty that has been created by the COVID-19 crisis.

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Cooperation and Conflict in the Global Political Economy

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director|

Oxford University Press, 2020
It is now commonplace to hear about the phenomenon of globalization.

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New Economic Statecraft: Industrial Policy in an Era of Strategic Competition

|By Vinod Aggarwal – Director| Andrew Reddie – Deputy Director|

Issues & Studies: A Social Science Quarterly on China, Taiwan, and East Asian Affairs, 2020
The 2018 U.S. National Defense Strategy notes that the United States faces “an increasingly complex global security environment, characterized by overt challenges to the free and open international order and the re-emergence of long-term, strategic competition between nations.”

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