Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in China’s Total War, 1937–1945

On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, the Clements Center for National Security and the Asia Policy Program hosted Jennifer Yip for a public book talk on Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in China’s Total War, 1937–1945.

Jennifer Yip is an Assistant Professor of History at the National University of Singapore, specializing in modern war, strategy, and the socio-economic impacts of conflict, with a focus on Republican China (1911–1949). She was previously a 2022–2023 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin. Jennifer earned her B.A. (Hons.) in History from the National University of Singapore, an M.Phil. in World History from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines the Chinese Nationalist government’s military grain procurement and transportation policies during the Second Sino-Japanese War, exploring how the seizure and distribution of food shaped military strategy, civilian experience, and the broader dynamics of warfare—highlighting the weaponization of resources as a central theme in twentieth-century statecraft.