Lecture Abstract

We live in an ‘age of uncertainty’ with three key characteristics. First, extreme globalized interdependence creates connectivity and vulnerability in equal measure. Second, in Asia, a power transition is upon us: China has risen, American resolve and commitment are uncertain, and other regional powers with different political systems are also resurgent. Third, the onset of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ promises rapid and unpredictable technological change that could revolutionize defence, economic and social organizations and relations. Amid these rapid and seemingly chaotic shifts, the inter-connections between economics and security become more complex, but also more urgent and significant. Based on extensive research into the contemporary regional order and strategic dynamics, as well as East Asia’s longer historical context, this lecture distills the most important elements of our age of uncertainty. It then sketches out the contours of three ways in which the economic-security nexus needs to be understood and managed in Asia.

About the Speaker

Evelyn Goh is the Shedden Professor of Strategic Policy Studies at the Australian National University, where she is also the Director of Research at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. Her expertise is Asian security and international relations, in theory and practice. She is internationally known as a scholar who uniquely combines empirical rigour and theoretical innovation. She is a regional expert in the sense that she studies China, the U.S., Northeast and Southeast Asia.

Professor Goh has published widely on U.S.-China diplomatic history and contemporary strategic relations; East Asian security cooperation and institutions; Southeast Asian strategies towards great powers; and environmental security. Her key publications include The Struggle for Order: Hegemony, Hierarchy and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2013); ‘Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies’ in the leading academic journal International Security (Winter 2007/8); and Constructing the US-China Rapprochement, 1961-1974 (Cambridge University Press, 2005). Most recently, she edited Rising China’s Influence in Developing Asia (Oxford University Press, 2016). She is currently finalising a book manuscript on Re-thinking Sino-Japanese Alienation (co-authored with Barry Buzan).

Evelyn moved to Australia in August 2013, and has held previous faculty positions at Royal Holloway University of London; the University of Oxford; and the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. She holds Masters (1999) and Doctoral (2001) degrees in International Relations and an undergraduate degree in Geography (1996), all from the University of Oxford. She also obtained a Masters in Environment & Development from Cambridge (1997). She is Singaporean, and received a President’s Scholarship in 1993.

Shuttle Bus Service:

A shuttle bus service is available from the taxi stand (F46) at Buona Vista MRT via Exit C to NTU@OneNorth from 2.00 – 3.00 pm
(See attached location map)