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The name of Professor Brad Thayer has recently garnered renewed attention among international politics and security researchers following an interview by former U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, Scott H. DeLisi, with a media outlet (NNP). The possibility has been raised that he may take on a role in the field of practical diplomacy and security strategy, extending beyond his academic pursuits.

After earning his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, Professor Thayer has been active at institutions such as the University of Missouri, the University of Minnesota Duluth, and the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School. He has established himself as an interdisciplinary strategist who not only views international politics and security issues through the lens of political science but also interprets them by incorporating insights from biology, psychology, and civilization theory, while simultaneously applying them to practical diplomacy and security strategy. Recently, he has continued his research activities within European academia at the University of Iceland and Tallinn University, contributing his voice to global strategic debates.

The reason he is gaining attention in academia is not simply because he is a theorist, but because he explains international politics by traversing evolutionary theory, psychology, and strategy. In his 2004 book, 《Darwin and International Relations》, he traced the roots of war and ethnic conflict to humanity's evolutionary instincts. His analysis, which posited that group competition for survival is the source of international political conflict, delivered a fresh shock to international relations theory.

In his 1998 book, 《America's Achilles' Heel》, he identified the Achilles' heel of American society. He warned that terrorist attacks and covert assaults utilizing nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons posed a fatal vulnerability to superpowers. When the anthrax attacks materialized in 2001, his diagnosis was regarded as prophetic insight.

In 2006, he co-authored 《American Empire: A Debate》 with Christopher Layne, directly confronting the question: "Is the United States an empire, and should it be?" While Layne warned of the dangers of overextension and proposed "offshore balancing" as an alternative, Thayer argued that American hegemony is an essential condition for global stability. This debate remains a reference point for U.S. foreign strategy discourse to this day.

What has recently brought Professor Thayer's name back into the spotlight is his book 《How China Sees the World》. In this book, he explains China's worldview through the concept of "Han-centrism." He posits that China defines itself as a civilization-state centered around the Han ethnic group and arranges neighboring countries within a hierarchical order. This provided a new framework for understanding China's behavior, which cannot be explained by simple realist power balancing.

The trajectory of Professor Brad Thayer's research can be summarized as an endeavor to encompass not only institutions and structural analysis in international politics but also human nature and civilizational identity. He is a realist voice advocating that "the United States must exercise imperial leadership," and simultaneously a cautionary voice stating that "to understand China, one must face their ethnic worldview directly."

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