— TEACHING
I teach courses on China, Japan and Asian Security both within and outside the university.
Credit: Flashpoint Labs
— CURRENTLY TEACHING
I teach into the Bachelor of International Security Studies at the Australian National University, and on ‘Strategic Policy for the Asia-Pacific in Transition’ for the Australian Department of Defence.
I also regularly guest lecture on China-Japan relations; history, memory and ideas in Northeast Asia; Chinese and Japanese security policy; and research design and methods in Asian Studies.
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In this course, students will learn six security concepts of critical relevance to security in the Asia-Pacific region, including order/hierarchy, alliances, polarity/balance of power, international reputation ("credibility"), historical memory, and the economics-security nexus. We will explore these concepts through case studies such as the Korean War, the Taiwan Strait crises, the history (and future) of alliances in Asia, the Vietnam War, Sino-U.S. rapprochement, the post-war order, and territorial disputes.
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In this module, participants will learn how China’s history, domestic politics, and interactions with the world have shaped its changing relationship to global order. Through a series of facilitated exercises, they will analyse the mechanisms, institutions, and trends that drive Chinese policy and behaviour in key domains, and determine how these policies are affecting a changing global order.
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In this module, participants will examine the major historical, security and economic forces shaping the China-Japan relationship, and will use a series of interactive case studies to assess a series of pressing policy questions: what are the implications of territorial disputes in the East China Sea for Asia’s order transition? How does nationalism shape Chinese foreign and security policy? And is there a trade-off between economics and security in the China-Japan relationship?
Current Courses:
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This course introduces undergraduate students to the challenging and in many respects very dangerous range of international security issues currently facing the Asia-Pacific region, and enables students to develop a series of analytical frameworks for understanding these international security challenges.
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China's re-emergence as a significant economic and political actor is a geopolitical development of the first order. This award-winning course introduces Masters students to the key defence and strategic challenges China has faced since 1949, organised around a semester-long policy-making simulation in which students play the role of a Chinese state or societal “actor”.
Previous Courses:
— THESIS SUPERVISION
I am always happy to hear from prospective Honours, Masters and PhD students with excellent academic records, and an interest in pursuing research on topics relating to my areas of expertise.
Given my current research focus on China and international economic order, I am particularly interested in hearing from applicants who wish to pursue theoretically-informed research, using Chinese- or Japanese-language sources, on similar topics.
Current Research Interests:
Chinese approaches to overseas development, foreign aid or infrastructure investment projects;
Chinese conceptions of the nexus between security and development (in historical or contemporary perspective);
Chinese conceptions of Japan’s development model, and infrastructure cooperation with Japan; and
China’s involvement in post-WWII institutions, based on new archival sources.
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Bo Li, “China’s influence in global development finance and debt relief” (Primary Supervisor & Chair of Panel)
Chenyue Li, “China’s education reform: a global public-private alliance for digitisation?” (Associate Supervisor/Panel Member)
Ben O’Sullivan “Trade disruptions and preferences for diversification” (Associate Supervisor/Panel Member)
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Jascha Prakoso Hadi Ramba. “Under the Dragon’s Tail: Indonesia, China, and Strategic Autonomy in the Nickel Era.” (Master of Strategic Studies - Advanced thesis)
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Currently supervising:
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Iain Henry, “Reliability and Alliance Politics: Interdependence and America’s Asian Alliance System” (Associate Supervisor/Panel Member)
Yusuke Ishihara, “Renegotiating Japan’s Postwar Bargains: The Transformation of Japanese Foreign Policy and the Pluralisation of the U.S. Hegemonic Order in the 1970s” (Associate Supervisor/Panel Member)
Fang Yang, “The Evolution of Chinese Maritime Law Enforcement Agencies, 1949-2018: Domestic and External Interactions” (Primary Supervisor & Chair of Panel)
Emirza Adi Syailendra, “Tacit Understandings: Explaining Maritime Southeast Asia’s Restraint towards China in the Post-Cold War Period” (Associate Supervisor/Panel Member)
Wenting He, “Rhetorical Sources of China’s Financial Policy Interests: Discursive Interaction, Economic Crisis Lessons, and China’s Rise in the Global Financial System” (Associate Supervisor/Panel Member)
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The evolution of Australian Government threat perceptions of Indonesia within the policy development process, 1957-1965
Japan’s strategic partnerships in Southeast Asia: A comparative analysis of the Vietnam and Philippines’ cases
The capability race in Southeast Asia: Focusing on the military metric that matters
China’s emerging cyber power: elite discourse and political aspirations
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Tao Yuan (Honours) “Fukoku Kyohei? Japan’s modern industrial development and its relationship with the First Sino-Japanese War”
Mike Yuet Cheung (Honours) “Comparing Chinese nationalism in the East China Sea and South China Sea”
Milla Harrison (Honours) “Between Economic Statecraft and Economic Diplomacy: China’s Mongolia policy, 1949-1991”
Jackson Skinner (PhB) “Australia’s China Decisions”
Reina Reilly (PhB), “Dalian and the memory politics of Japanese imperialism”
Previous thesis supervision:
Requesting Thesis Supervision
If you wish to contact me about prospective Honours and Masters supervision, please include: a copy of your academic transcript, CV, and a tentative research proposal.
If you are interested in prospective PhD supervision, review instructions here.
On writing the thesis:
I've learned a lot about the writing process from reading writers and academics talk about their own writing. Below are some pieces that I often recommend to graduate students:
Ann Patchett's The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir about Writing and Life
The Thesis Whisperer's How to write 1000 words a day
Pat Thomson's Finding the right writing time/place and Am I a 'writer'?
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.