Ketian Vivian Zhang is an Associate Professor of International Security in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where she also directs the International Relations Policy Task Force. Ketian studies rising power grand strategies, coercion, economic statecraft, and maritime disputes, with a regional focus on China and East Asia. Ketian has a theoretical interest in linking international security and international political economy. In particular, her research agenda emphasizes how globalized production and supply chains affect states' foreign policy, especially regarding coercion and grand strategy.

Ketian’s first book with Cambridge University Press, China’s Gambit, examines when, why, and how China uses coercion when faced with issues of national security, such as territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas, foreign arms sales to Taiwan, and foreign leaders’ reception of the Dalai Lama. Part of her research has appeared in International Security, Journal of Strategic Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Texas National Security Review, Asia Policy, among other venues. Ketian’s second book project examines the relationship between economic interdependence and rising powers’ use of grand strategic means, diplomatic, economic, and military.

Ketian received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is also an affiliate of the Security Studies Program. Prior to coming to George Mason University, Ketian previously held fellowships with the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University. Ketian was also a visiting fellow at the Australian National University in 2025.