The Ian Chong Bookshelf: Rigorous Scholarship, Sino-Asian Revelations, Real-World Relevance

Thanksgiving Day is a time for reflection and appreciation. Among my many blessings, it has been my good fortune to have enjoyed such a wonderful time at Princeton’s Politics Ph.D. program. My classmates there included Ian Chong, whom I’ve subsequently met up at with conferences across the United States and Asia. We’ve also overlapped as affiliates at Harvard and of the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program. Along the way, I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Ian concerning both the discipline of scholarship and the real world issues that he elucidates with it. His sharp intellect is always instructive and his sense of humor is infectious. Informing Ian’s work is a deep empathy for the people it might somehow help through better understanding and policies. So, if you haven’t done so already, please take a look at Ian’s publications and presentations below. Whatever your focus, I’m confident you’ll find much of interest and relevance that is simply unavailable anywhere else.

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Ja Ian Chong is associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Chong’s work crosses the fields of international relations, comparative politics, and political sociology, with a focus on security issues relating to China and East Asia. He follows the interplay of social movements, politics, and foreign policy in East Asia closely. Dr. Chong was formerly was a 2019–20 Harvard-Yenching Visiting Scholar, 2013 Taiwan Fellow, 2012–13 East-West Center Asian Studies Fellow, and 2008–09 Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program fellow. He previously taught at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and worked with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. and the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore. He is an editor with the Singapore studies collective, AcademiaSG, and one of the founding editors of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. He received the 2012 NUS Faculty Award for Promising Researcher.

Dr. Chong’s work appears in a number of journals, edited volumes, and newspapers, including the China Quarterly, European Journal ofInternational Relations, International Security, and Security Studies. He is author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Thailand, Indonesia – 1893-1952 (Cambridge University Press, 2012), recipient of the 2013–14 Best Book Award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association.

The focus of Dr. Chong’s teaching and research is on international relations, especially IR theory, security, Chinese foreign policy, and international relations in the Asia-Pacific. Of particular interest to him are issues that stand at the nexus of international and domestic politics, such as influences on nationalism and the consequences of major power competition on the domestic politics of third countries. He also enjoys examining historical material in his research. In addition to his academic background, he has experience working in think-tanks both in Singapore and in the United States. As such, he also probes the relationship between political science theory and policy. He strongly believes that the two can inform each other.

Dr. Chong is currently working on two major projects. The first examines how responses to power transition by non-leading states aggregate to affect the acuteness of competition among leading states. He looks empirically at East Asia following World War II, after the Vietnam War, and after the end of the Cold War. A second explores the micro-processes behind elite capture and influence operations both historically and in the present-day. This project considers several Southeast Asia cases in comparative perspective to cases in Europe, Australasia, North America, and Northeast Asia looking at ethnic diaspora as well as business and political elites.

莊嘉穎現任新加坡國立大學政治系副教授。研究領域跨越國際關係、比較政、政治社會學等領域，對同盟結構、政治制度轉型、爭議政治、外力介入、亞洲安全、中國外交和中美關係等專題。曾擔任哈佛燕京學社訪問學人、International Studies Review副編輯、National Bureau of Asian Research旗下Maritime Awareness Project國際諮詢委員，東西方中心（East-West Center）亞洲學人、國際暨戰略研究中心（CSIS）研究員。莊嘉穎現為新加坡研究合作社AcademiaSG其中的編輯，也是Georgetown Journal of International Affairs創刊編輯之一。

學術著作在《世界經濟與政治》、Asian Security、China Quarterly、Contemporary Southeast Asia、East Asia Forum、 European Journal of International Relations、International Security、Security Studies、The National Interest以及《二十世紀中國》等刊物發表。專書《External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Thailand, Indonesia – 1893-1952 》（劍橋大學初版社，2012年）榮獲國際研究學會（International Studies Association）國際安全研究組（International Security Studies Section）2013/4年度最佳圖書獎。

Ja Ian Chong adalah profesor madya sains politik di Universiti Nasional Singapura (NUS).

Karya Dr Chong melintasi bidang hubungan antarabangsa, politik perbandingan, dan sosiologi politik, dengan fokus pada isu keselamatan yang berkaitan dengan China dan Asia Timur. Dia mengikuti interaksi gerakan sosial, politik, dan dasar luar di Asia Timur secara dekat. Dr. Chong sebelumnya adalah Visiting Scholar di Institut Harvard-Yenching pada 2019/20, Taiwan Fellow 2012/3, East-West Center Asian Studies Fellow 2012/3, dan 2008/9 Fellow di Program Princeton-Harvard China dan Dunia. Dia sebelumnya bekerja dengan Pusat Kajian Strategik dan Antarabangsa (CSIS) di Washington, D.C., Amerika Syarikat dan Institut Pertahanan dan Kajian Strategik (IDSS) di Singapura. Dia pada masa ini seorang penyunting dengan kolektif pengajian Singapura tersebut, AcademiaSG, dan salah satu penyunting pengasas untuk Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

Karya Dr. Chong muncul dalam sejumlah jurnal, jilid yang diedit, dan surat khabar, termasuk China Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, dan Security Studies. Dia adalah pengarang Intervensi Luar dan Politik Pembentukan Negara: China, Thailand, Indonesia – 1893-1952, Cambridge University Press, 2012, penerima Anugerah Buku Terbaik 2013/4 dari Bahagian Pengajian Keselamatan Antarabangsa di Persatuan Pengajian Antarabangsa.

Research Interests

• Security
• External Intervention
• Sovereignty
• Nationalism
• International and Domestic Political Institutions
• Politics of Hegemony and Domination
• Major Power Rivalry
• International Relations and Politics of the Asia-Pacific
• Chinese Foreign Policy
• U.S.-China Relations
• Chinese Politics
• Political Liberalisation and Foreign and Security Policy
• Alliance Politics
• Contentious Politics
• Social Movements
• Taiwan
• Hong Kong
• Northeast and Southeast Asian regional politics
• Influence operations

Teaching Areas

• International Relations
• Chinese Foreign Policy
• International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
• International Security
• External Intervention
• Sovereignty, State formation, and State-Building
• Alliance Politics

Courses Taught:

• China’s Foreign Policy
• International Relations Graduate Field Seminar
• International Relations in the Asia-Pacific
• International Security
• Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
• State and Society

PUBLICATIONS:

SINGLE-AUTHORED BOOKS

Ja Ian Chong, External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Indonesia, Thailand, 1893-1952 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

• Best Book Award 2013/4, International Security Studies Section, International Studies Association

This book explores ways in which foreign intervention and external rivalries can affect the institutionalization of governance in weak states. When sufficiently competitive, foreign rivalries in a weak state can actually foster the political centralization, territoriality, and autonomy associated with state sovereignty. This counterintuitive finding comes from studying the collective effects of foreign contestation over a weak state as informed by changes in the expected opportunity cost of intervention for outside actors. When interveners associate high opportunity costs with intervention, they bolster sovereign statehood as a next best alternative to their worst fear—domination of that polity by adversaries. Sovereign statehood develops if foreign actors concurrently and consistently behave this way toward a weak state. This book evaluates that argument against three “least likely” cases—China, Indonesia, and Thailand between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.

REFEREED ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS

Ja Ian Chong, “No Easy Answers: Southeast Asia and China’s Influence,” in Brian Fong, Wu Jieh-Min, and Andrew J. Nathan, eds., China’s Influences: Center-Periphery Tug-of-War across the Indo-Pacific (London: Routledge, 2020).

PRC influence in Southeast Asia can unsettle the region by heightening uncertainties and putting pressure on existing fault lines even as it promises economic growth and prosperity. China’s interests and actions intersect with deep-seated concerns about institutions, and political stability across Southeast Asia in ways that go beyond the commercial benefits from Chinese economic prominence. Beijing naturally seeks to advance its interests in the region and avert developments that negatively affect those concerns. Chinese pursuit of these objectives can erode the ability to of the main regional grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to promote region-wide collaboration and put pressure on the social compacts holding various polities together. Southeast Asian states need to carefully manage the effects that follow from the uneven distribution of gains, costs, and risks that come with enhanced engagement with China to ensure stable and sustainable cooperation. … … …

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Ja Ian Chong, “Power in Comparison: Teaching and Studying Taiwan in Global Perspective,” American Journal of Chinese Studies 27.1 (April 2020): 52–57.

Taiwan is, in many ways, experiencing growing global visibility that is translating into more scholarly attention and interest. This situation results from Taiwan’s political liberalization and economic success which enables everything from sustained external contacts to artistic achievement and official outreach. An issue that now faces those committed to teaching Taiwan is how to consolidate and expand on existing awareness and concerns. One way to do so is to examine Taiwan-related topics in comparative perspective and actively bring it into discussions within academic disciplines and across different regions.

For social scientists, teaching Taiwan next to other cases and incorporating it into disciplinary debates raises the question: what is Taiwan a case of? Clearly establishing the conceptual bases for assessing Taiwan or Taiwan-based phenomena, alongside the cases with which they will undergo investigation, is crucial. Such considerations ground teaching with the intellectual rigor and methodological robustness that scholars and students expect and deserve. Careful comparison fosters theoretical innovation and the development of new perspectives that make Taiwan more accessible and relevant to students beyond area specialists. … … …

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Ja Ian Chong, “The Burdens of Ethnicity: Ethnic Chinese Communities in Singapore and Their Relations with China,” in Terence Chong, ed., Navigating Differences: Integration in Singapore (Singapore: Yusof Ishak Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2020), 165–85.

Communities in Singapore who trace their roots to what is today the PRC have a complex and sometimes difficult relationship with their place of ancestral origin. This was the case since migration to Singapore began en masse in the early nineteenth century. Much of the complication comes from how these communities and their diverse interests intersect with the concerns of other groups in Singapore, as well as politics and economics both locally and in China. The PRC’s recent global prominence and the efforts of its government to exercise influence externally muddies matters further for ethnic Chinese in Singapore. A solution is to develop a stronger sense of citizenship based around reasonable, substantive, and meaningful civic values and rights that transcend ethnicity, religion, and other narrower concerns. … … …

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Ja Ian Chong, “A Matter of Trust: Understanding Limited Support for Taiwan’s Defense Reform,” in Ryan Dunch and Ashley Esarey, eds., Taiwan in Dynamic Transition (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2020), 181–97.

Taiwan’s citizenry maintains a curious ambivalence toward military reform and modernization. It faces an increasingly powerful China that claims the right to use force against the island and builds future military operations against Taiwan integrally into its military planning. Despite this, there is limited public appetite for military spending, and defense related bud gets have been falling since the early 2000s, including support for projects that seek the transfer of more advanced technologies from the United States. These trends reflect a focus on doctrine, acquisitions, training, bureaucracy, and legislation when it comes to military and defense issues in Taiwan, including on reform.

There is relative inattention to civil-military relations, specifically the shedding of the military’s legacy as a tool for repression under martial law. Active participation in transitional justice efforts can help the military and Taiwan’s society come to terms with the former’s complicity, if not active role, during the White Terror, and allow for more active support of the military in Taiwan society. Such developments are an important next step in political reform for Taiwan’s military following its nationalization in the 1990s and key to enabling it to play a larger and more effective role in securing Taiwan in the face of growing threats. … … …

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Ja Ian Chong, “Shifting Winds in Southeast Asia: Chinese Prominence and the Future of Regional Order,” in Ashley J. Tellis, Alison Szalwinski, and Michael Wills, eds., Strategic Asia 2019: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions (Seattle, WA: National Bureau of Asia Research, 2019), 143–74.

MAIN ARGUMENT

China’s growing economic, strategic, and political prominence have put it in a stronger position to shape developments in Southeast Asia. Beijing’s apparent disinterest in strategic restraint, the region’s inability to resolve collective action problems, and uncertainty over the future U.S. role in the region bolster China’s influence and preeminence there. Such trends reflect not just historically close ties between China and Southeast Asia but also China’s recent attempts to take the initiative in these relationships and divide the unity of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Should the U.S. wish to retain an active forward presence in Southeast Asia, more direct, frequent, and intense friction with China is likely. Robust regional partnerships and a credible rules-based order are key to weathering such tensions.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• China’s resurgence in the region, coupled with uncertainty about U.S. regional leadership, implies the continued erosion of ASEAN centrality, which in the past has helped promote regional calm. If Southeast Asian states wish to maintain regional autonomy and avoid being torn between the U.S. and China, they must overcome collective action problems.
• ASEAN’s challenges in managing contentious U.S.-China relations mean there is mounting urgency for member states to decide whether to engage in serious organizational reform or adopt alternative institutional arrangements, including ones that may facilitate Chinese primacy.
• The U.S. must more concretely articulate and implement its Indo-Pacific strategy in Southeast Asia. The viability of the U.S. position in the region depends on clarity, consistency, and direction with ASEAN, individual Southeast Asian states, and other regional actors. … … …

CLICK HERE TO READ ADDITIONAL PUBLICATIONS BY DR. CHONG.