Bhubhindar Singh is Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and Faculty Fellow at the NTU-University Scholars Programme (USP), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

At RSIS, Bhubhindar is the Head of the Graduate Programmes Office (GPO).

Before joining NTU, Bhubhindar was a Sasakawa Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. He is a recipient of the Fulbright Award, and has held visiting positions at George Washington University, University of Tokyo, Chuo University (Japan), and National Institute of Defense Studies (NIDS, Japan).

Bhubhindar’s main research area is in the international relations of Northeast Asia with a special focus on Japan’s security policy. His secondary research areas are international relations of Southeast Asia and sources of peace and peaceful change in East Asia.

Bhubhindar has published in the European Journal of International Relations, International Relations of Asia-Pacific, The Pacific Review, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Asian Survey, Asian Security, Asia Policy, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Asian Affairs: An American Review, Korean Journal of Defense Analyses, The Round Table, Contemporary Southeast Asia and Issues & Studies; and his books are Japanese Security Identity Transformation: From a Peace-State to an International-State (Routledge 2013) and Reconstructing Japan’s Security Policy: The Role of Military Crises (Edinburgh University Press, 2020).

Bhubhindar holds a PhD in East Asian Studies from the University of Sheffield, UK, a MSc in Strategic Studies from the Nanyang Technological University, and a BA (Hons) in English Language from the National University of Singapore.

• Japanese Foreign Security Policy
• International Relations of Northeast Asia

Monographs

• MN21 | From 'Boots' to 'Brogues': The Rise of Defence Diplomacy in Southeast Asia

  10 October, 2011

Working Papers

• WP265 | South Korea’s Middle-Power Engagement Initiatives: Perspectives from Southeast Asia

  28 July, 2013

• WP255 | Security Identity, Policymaking Regime and Japanese Security Policy Development

  05 March, 2013

• WP209 | Japan's New Security Imperative: The Function of Globalization

  11 October, 2010

Policy Reports

• The Future of the ADMM/ADMM-Plus and Defence Diplomacy in the Asia Pacific

  23 February, 2016

• Impact of the Sino-Japanese Competitive Relationship on ASEAN as a Region and Institution

  24 December, 2014

• Japan's Perspectives of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM)-Plus

  01 December, 2012

• Is Northeast Asian Regionalism The Centre of East Asian Regionalism?

  01 July, 2012

Commentaries

• ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific: Seizing the Narrative?

  23 January, 2020

• CO18102 | Trump-Kim Summit: The Failure of American Leadership?

  20 June, 2018

• CO18083 | The Kim –Trump Summit in Singapore: North Korea’s End Goals

  15 May, 2018

• CO16281 | The Rise of Trump and Its Global Implications - Impact on US-Japan Alliance

  15 November, 2016

• CO16151 | ASEAN Unity in the Face of China’s Unilateral “Consensus”

  20 June, 2016

• CO14138 | Japan’s Rising Security Challenges

  14 July, 2014

• CO14127 | Abe Doctrine: US-Japan Alliance, International Law and ASEAN

  04 July, 2014

• CO13006 | Abe's First Overseas Trip: Why Southeast Asia?

  14 January, 2013

• CO12205 | Stability in Northeast Asia: Bolstering Defence Diplomacy

  05 November, 2012

• CO12098 | Trilateral Northeast Asia FTA: Pragmatic Regionalism

  12 June, 2012

• CO11169 | Japan’s Internationalism and EAS

  17 November, 2011

• CO10127 | China-Japan Dispute: Tokyo's Foreign Policy of Pragmatism

  05 October, 2010

• CO10037 | Is Japan Tilting towards China?

  06 April, 2010

• CO03009 | Tension on Korean Peninsula: Japan Most Threatened

  26 March, 2003

• CO02016 | September 11 and Major Power Relations in Northeast Asia

  12 September, 2002

• CO02016 | September 11 and Major Power Relations in Northeast Asia

  12 September, 2002

Annual Reviews

• Selected Essays by RSIS Researchers - 2021

  17 January, 2022

Authored Books

• Reconstructing Japan’s Security: The Role of Military Crises. UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2020
• Japan’s Security Identity: From a Peace-State to an International-State. : Routledge, 2013

Journal Articles

• “Contending Visions of East Asian Regional Order: Insights from the United States, China, Japan, and Indonesia” (with Sarah Teo, Shawn Ho, and Tsjeng Zhizhao Henrick) in Asian Affairs: An American Review, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2019. pp. 19-41
• Singh, Bhubhindar. “Introduction.” Roundtable on Contending Visions of the Regional Order in East Asia. Asia Policy 13, no. 2 (2018): 2-5.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "Japan-ASEAN Relations: Challenges, Impact and Strategic Options." Panorama: Insights into Asian and European Affairs, no. 1 (2017): 95-106.
• Bhubhindar Singh, Sarah Teo & Benjamin Ho, "Rising Sino-Japanese competition: perspectives from South-East Asian elites", Australian Journal of International Affairs, Volume 71, Issue 1, February 2017, Pages 105-120, DOI: 10.1080/10357718.2016.1157849
  
• Teo, Sarah, Bhubhindar Singh and See Seng Tan. "Southeast Asian Perspectives on South Korea’s Middle Power Engagement Initiatives." Asian Survey 56, no. 3 (2016): 555-580.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "The Development of Japanese Security Policy: A Long-Term Defensive Strategy." Asia Policy 19 (January 2015): 49-64. http://nbr.org/publications/element.aspx?id=798.
• Tan, See Seng, and Bhubhindar Singh, eds. 2012. “Special Issue: Defence Diplomacy in Southeast Asia.” Asian Security 8.
• Singh, Bhubhindar, and Philip Shetler-Jones. "Japan’s reconceptualization of national security: the impact of globalization." International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 11, no. 3 (2011): 491-530.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "Peacekeeping in Japanese security policy: International-Domestic Contexts Interaction." European Journal of International Relations 17, no. 3 (2011): 429-52.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "Japan’s security policy: from a peace state to an international state." The Pacific Review 21, no. 3 (2008): 303-25.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "ASEAN's perceptions of Japan: change and continuity." Asian Survey 42, no. 2 (2002): 279-96.

Edited Books / Special Issues

• Minilateralism in the Indo-Pacific: The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, and ASEAN (with Sarah Teo), Eds. Oxon: Routledge, 2020

Chapters in Edited Books

• “Introduction: Minilateralism in the Indo-Pacific” (with Sarah Teo) in Bhubhindar Singh and Sarah Teo (Eds.), Minilateralism in the Indo-Pacific: The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, and ASEAN. Oxon: Routledge, 2020, pp. 1-12

Op-Eds

• “Korea-Japan: History is not Present in the Past” (with Shawn Ho), Asia Times, 30 October 2019
• “The Quad as an enabler of regional security cooperation”, ASPI The Strategist, 13 November 2018
• “S’pore’s ADMM chairmanship: Aiming high for regional security in turbulent times”, The Straits Times, 19 October 2018
• “Contesting Visions of Regional Order in East Asia: A Japanese Perspective”, Asia Dialogue, 9 July 2018
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "A new era of peace in Korean Peninsula?." New Straits Times, 22 May 2018. https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2018/05/371790/new-era-peace-korean-peninsula
• Singh, Bhubhindar, and Sarah Teo. “ASEAN has an instrumental role in US-China power play." Channel NewsAsia, 8 May 2017. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/commentary-asean-has-an-instrumental-role-in-us-china-power-play-8826380.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "Japan’s Strategic Importance in an Uncertain 2017." Channel NewsAsia, 3 February 2017. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/commentary-japan-s-strategic-importance-in-an-uncertain-2017/3487940.html.
• Singh, Bhubhindar, Sarah Teo, and Benjamin Ho. "Sino-Japanese Competition and ASEAN." Australian Outlook, 9 January 2017. http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australian_outlook/sino-japanese-competition-and-asean.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "Geopolitical trends in East Asia", Asia & The Pacific Policy Society (APPS) Policy Forum, 5 July 2016
• Singh, Bhubhindar, Shawn Ho, and Henrick Z. Tsjeng. " China's Bogus South China Sea 'Consensus' ", The National Interest, 14 June 2016
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "The importance of Australia to Japan's national security", The Interpreter, 16 May 2016
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "Implications for Southeast Asia of the New U.S.-Japan Defense Guidelines," Asia Pacific Bulletin (East-West Center), No. 329, November 10, 2015.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. “Abe has chance to make history with statement marking 70th anniversary of war." The Asahi Shimbun, 1 July 2015. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/forum/politics_and_economy/east_asia/AJ201507010093.
• Singh, Bhubhindar. "Japan’s Global Image Blemished by History." Rising Powers Initiative, 15 May 2015. http://www.risingpowersinitiative.org/rpi-visiting-scholar-bhubhindar-singh-japans-global-image-blemished-by-history/.
• Ho, Benjamin, Bhubhindar Singh, and Sarah Teo. "ASEAN Chairmanship in 2015: Perspectives and Prospects", Asia Pacific Bulletin, No. 298, 13 January 2015, http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/malaysia%E2%80%99s-asean-chairmanship-in-2015-perspectives-and-prospects.

• IR6015 Japanese Foreign Policy