Eric HYER Eric Hyer received his PhD in political science from Columbia University in 1990 and is presently an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Brigham Young University. He was a visiting scholar at the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing in 1995–96. His research focuses on China’s foreign relations, especially China’s relations with its neighbors. He has conducted field research on China’s boundaries in Russia, Vietnam, Mongolia, and along China’s border with Central Asia. He has traveled extensively within China, has traveled in Tibet, and twice traversed the Karakoram Highway between western China and Pakistan. He is the author of articles on China’s arms sales and on territorial and nationalities issues. He is currently completing a book on China’s boundary disputes and settlements.