Paine graduated with an A.B.magna cum laude in Latin American studies at Harvard College in 1979. She spent ten years acquiring her Ph.D. in Russian and Chinese history at Columbia University, which included five years of research and language study in China, Taiwan, Russia, Japan, and Australia.[1][2] She has received two Title VIII fellowships from the Hoover Institution,[3] two Fulbright fellowships, and other fellowships from Japan, Taiwan, and Australia.[1] She began her career at the Naval War College as an associate professor in 2000, was promoted to full professor in 2006, and since 2014 is the William S. Sims University Professor of History and Grand Strategy and is also the Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History.[4]
Family
She is married to Bruce A. Elleman, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College.[5] She has two brothers – John B. Paine III, and Thomas M. Paine.[6]
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 Wars for Asia 1911–1949 (Cambridge University Press, 2012). 2012 Winner of the PROSE award for European & World History[7] and longlisted for the Lionel Gelber prize.[8]