Sarah C. Paine

Sarah Crosby Mallory "Sally" Paine (in publications, S. C. M. Paine) is an American historian, author, and professor of strategy and policy at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. She has written and co-edited several books on naval policy and related affairs, and subjects of interest to the United States Navy or Department of Defense. Other works she has authored concern the political and military history of East Asia, particularly China, during the modern era.

Sarah C.M. Paine
Paine in 2018
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Professor, US Naval War College
Years active	1996–present
Academic background
Education	Harvard University (BA) Middlebury College (MA) Columbia University (PhD)
Academic work
Discipline	History
Institutions	U.S. Naval War College
Notable works	The Wars for Asia 1911–1949 The Japanese Empire

Biography

Paine graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1979 with a BA in Latin American studies. She spent ten years acquiring her PhD in Russian and Chinese history at Columbia University, which included five years of research and language study in China, Taiwan, Russia, Japan, and Australia. She has received two Title VIII fellowships from the Hoover Institution, two Fulbright fellowships, and other fellowships from Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. She began her career at the Naval War College as an associate professor starting in 2000 and is now a professor of history and grand strategy.

She is married to Bruce A. Elleman, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College. She has two brothers – John B. Paine III, and Thomas M. Paine.

Selected publications

Author

• Japan caught between maritime and continental imperialism, in Hal Brands, The Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age (Princeton University Press, 2023, pages 415–439).
• The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
• The Wars for Asia 1911–1949 (Cambridge University Press, 2012). 2012 Winner of the PROSE award for European & World History and longlisted for the Lionel Gelber prize.
• The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier, 1858–1924 (M.E. Sharpe, 1996). Winner of the 1997 Barbara Jelavich Book Prize.

Co-author with Bruce A. Elleman:

• Modern China: Continuity and Change, 1644 to the Present (Prentice Hall, 2010).

Editor

• Nation Building, State Building and Economic Development: Case Studies and Comparisons (M.E. Sharpe, 2010).

Co-editor with Bruce A. Elleman:

• Naval Power and Expeditionary Warfare: Peripheral Campaigns and New Theatres of Naval Warfare (Routledge, 2011).
• Naval Coalition Warfare: From the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi Freedom (Routledge, 2008).
• Naval Blockades and Seapower: Strategies and Counter-Strategies 1805–2005 (Routledge, 2006).