Brendan Flynn
Brendan Flynn is a Sarasohn Dissertation Fellow PhD Candidate at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. His research focuses on IR theory and the U.S.-China-Taiwan relationship. Brendan’s work explains instability in the relationship as an outcome of the interaction of different levels of analysis, i.e., structural, domestic, and individual leader factors in the three polities. He maintains secondary regional interests in the Balkans and West Africa (especially Mali).
Brendan has conducted fieldwork and language-study in Taiwan, and language-study in China. His work has been supported by the Department of Defense National Security Education Program Boren Fellowship and the Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) Taiwan Scholarship, and his writing has appeared in a GTI Occasional Report and in The National Interest. Brendan is a B.A. graduate of the early college program at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
Research interest(s)/area of expertise
IR theory; security studies; U.S.-China relations; Taiwan; History of political thought
Education
B.A. - Bard College at Simon's Rock (2009)Awards and grants
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Sarasohn Dissertation Fellowship (2024 - 2025) - Wayne State University, Department of Political Science
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Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) Taiwan Scholarship (2023)
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David L. Boren Fellowship (2022 - 2023) - Intensive Mandarin language study, Taipei, Taiwan
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Thomas C. Rumble Fellowship (2020 - 2021) - Wayne State University, Department of Political Science
Selected publications
"An Untenable Status Quo: Structural Change and the U.S.-China-Taiwan Relationship." Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) Occasional Report, April 2024
"Biden Must Build a New Status Quo on Taiwan." The National Interest. 09/21/2022.