The Economics-Security Nexus
My interest in the nexus between economics and security stems from my earliest work on the China-Japan relationship, which is widely recognised as a peculiar case in which bilateral economic ties have thrived despite profound political and security tensions between the two states.
Confounding both the liberal thesis that economic interdependence can generate closer political and security relations, and the realist view that close political and security relations are a prerequisite for economic interdependence, my book on post-WWII China-Japan relations instead demonstrated that perceptions of insecurity can motivate close economic ties between adversarial states.
Rather than assuming an innate or theoretically-predetermined relationship between economics and security, I have argued for the need to understand how states differently conceptualise the nexus between economics and security, demonstrating findings across a diverse group of cases including China, Japan, the United States and Australia. With Evelyn Goh, I organised a 2015 workshop ‘Unpacking the Economics-Security Nexus in Asia’, which brought together Australian and internationally-based scholars using new concepts, methods and case studies to interrogate the relationship between economics and security.
My research on the economics-security nexus has also informed my reviews, commentary and policy-reports on topics including China’s failed use of economic statecraft; the unhelpful divide between economists and strategists in Australian policy-making; and the gaps between economic and political-security cooperation in East Asia.
Credit: Flashpoint Labs
— MORE ABOUT ME
In my writing, research, and teaching I am interested in how China and Japan have historically understood their place in the world, and their role in shaping a changing international order.
— FEATURED PROJECT
How China Shapes International Economic Order
Through an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship and a Westpac Research Fellowship, I lead a research team investigating China’s role in shaping the post-WWII international economic order, and the contemporary legacy of China’s historical economic ideas.