Gilbert Junbo Lai is a 2025-26 Stephanie G. Neuman Fellow in Comparative Defense Studies at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. He is also a political science Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University, majoring in international relations and minoring in political economy and comparative politics. He is interested in IR theory, great power politics, economic development, state-building, and nationalism. He was also a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at the University of Notre Dame and an Andrew Cordier Fellow at Columbia University for the 2024-25 academic year. Before coming to Columbia, Mr. Lai received his B.A. in world history from Lanzhou University in 2020 and his M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago in 2021.