Sarah C. M. Paine

Sarah Crosby Mallory Paine is an American historian who was the William S. Sims University Professor of History and Grand Strategy 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 and Japan, during the modern era.

Career

Paine graduated with a B.A., magna cum laude, in Latin American studies from Harvard College in 1979. She then obtained an M.I.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University in 1984, and an M.A. in Russian from Middlebury College in 1989. She spent ten years on her doctoral research 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 finally received her Ph.D. degree in history from Columbia in 1993. 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 in 2000, was promoted to full professor in 2006, and from 2014 to 2025 she was the William S. Sims University Professor of History and Grand Strategy and also held the position of Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History.

She has three brothers including John B. Paine III, and Thomas M. Paine.

"Japan caught between maritime and continental imperialism", in The Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age.
The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War.
The Wars for Asia 1911–1949. 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.
Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier, 1858–1924. Winner of the 1997 Barbara Jelavich Book Prize.

Co-author with Bruce A. Elleman:

Modern China: Continuity and Change, 1644 to the Present.
Editor
Nation Building, State Building and Economic Development: Case Studies and Comparisons.

Co-editor with Bruce A. Elleman:

Naval Power and Expeditionary Warfare: Peripheral Campaigns and New Theatres of Naval Warfare.
Naval Coalition Warfare: From the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Naval Blockades and Seapower: Strategies and Counter-Strategies 1805–2005.