Joseph Chinyong Liow is Tan Kah Kee Chair in Comparative and International Politics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is Professor and former Dean at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and currently Dean of College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at NTU Singapore. He held the inaugural Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, where he was also a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Program.

Joseph’s research interests encompass Muslim politics and social movements in Southeast Asia and the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Asia Pacific region.

Joseph is the author, co-author, or editor of 14 books. His most recent single-authored books are Ambivalent Engagement: The United States and Regional Security in Southeast Asia after the Cold War (Brookings 2017), Religion and Nationalism in Southeast Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia, fourth edition (Routledge, 2014). A regular columnist for The Straits Times, his commentaries on international affairs have also appeared in New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, National Interest, Nikkei Asian Review, and the Wall Street Journal.  He has testified to the United States Congress, and been invited to deliver a special closed-door briefing to the ASEAN Defence Minister’s Meeting.  In addition to scholarship and policy analysis, Joseph has also consulted for a wide-range of MNCs including Shell, BHP Billiton, Chevron, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Total, and Statoil. He sits on the board of several peer-reviewed academic and policy journals, is a member of the Social Science Research Council (Singapore), and serves as Singapore’s representative on the advisory board of the ASEAN Institute of Peace and Reconciliation formed under the auspices of the ASEAN Charter.

Joseph Liow holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a MSc in Strategic Studies from the Nanyang Technological University, and a BA (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Madison-Wisconsin.

• Asia Pacific Security Issues
• Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia
• Muslim Social and Political Movements in Southeast Asia

• Visiting Fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, Jun-Jul 2005
• Southeast Asia Fellow, East-West Center Washington, USA, October-December 2005
• Fulbright Researcher, Stanford University, USA, September-November 2011
• Visiting Fellow, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University, USA, November-December 2007
• Honorary Fellow, Strategy and Security Institute, Exeter University, U.K., since October 2013
• Singapore Representative, Advisory Board, ASEAN Institute of Peace and Reconciliation (appointed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore)
• Co-Editor, Asian Security Book Series, Routledge
• Member, Editorial Board, South East Asia Research
• Member, Editorial Board, The ASAN Forum
• Member, Advisory Board, NTU Academic Council

Working Papers

• WP153 | Outlook for Malaysia’s 12th General Elections

  27 February, 2008

• WP063 | Outlook for Malaysia’s 11th General Election

  01 March, 2004

• WP045 | Deconstructing Political Islam in Malaysia : UMNO’S Reponse to PAS’ Religio-Political Dialectic

  01 March, 2003

• WP005 | Continuity and Change In Malaysian Politics: Assessing the Buildup to the 1999-2000 General Elections

  01 August, 1999

Commentaries

• CO18072 | Black Swan, Dark Horse, and Elephant in the Room

  24 April, 2018

• CO18025 | Shifting Sands of Terrorism in Southeast Asia

  15 February, 2018

• CO17216 | Trump's Asia Visit: New Momentum in US-Asia Ties?

  16 November, 2017

• CO17190 | Taking Shape: New Global Financial Architecture

  11 October, 2017

• CO17144 | US Strategy in the South China Sea: Five Pillars for a Proposed Trump Plan

  02 August, 2017

• CO17049 | Trump's Asia Policy, Two Months On

  21 March, 2017

• CO17030 | Malaysia Election Looms: Opposition Forces in Power Play

  17 February, 2017

• CO16177 | The PCA Ruling and ASEAN: A Call for Unity

  14 July, 2016

• CO16099 | The ISIS Threat to Southeast Asia: An Assessment

  29 April, 2016

• CO15156 | IS Activity in Southeast Asia

  24 July, 2015

• CO15087 | Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Dream

  10 April, 2015

• CO15004 | Ketuanan Melayu: What’s in a Name?

  06 January, 2015

• CO13075 | Malaysia's GE13: A Cliff-hanger Election

  25 April, 2013

• CO13033 | Trading Swords for Ploughshares: How Sajahatra Bangsamoro could bring peace to Mindanao

  18 February, 2013

• CO12174 | The Libyan Crisis: Romney's "Curve Ball" or "Terrible Course"?

  14 September, 2012

• CO10124 | Indonesia-Malaysia Relations: Baggage of ‘Blood Brotherhood’

  28 September, 2010

• CO10007 | Religion and Identity in Malaysia

  14 January, 2010

• CO07055 | The 53rd PAS Congress: Implications for Malaysian Politics

  06 June, 2007

• CO06119 | A New Era in US-ASEAN Relations

  14 November, 2006

• CO06094 | The Mahathir-Abdullah Rift: What’s really at stake?

  08 September, 2006

• CO06090 | Prospects for Reform in PAS

  28 August, 2006

• CO05011 | Over-reading the Islamist factor in Thailand’s southern troubles

  10 March, 2005

• CO04032 | The Pondok Schools of Southern Thailand: Bastion of Islamic Education or Hotbed of Militancy?

  25 August, 2004

• CO04014 | Bangkok’s Southern Discomfort: Violence and Response in Southern Thailand

  03 May, 2004

• CO04004 | Malaysia: PM Abdullah Badawi’s Performance and Prospects

  25 February, 2004

• CO03034 | THE 49TH PAS CONGRESS: Politics behind the rhetoric

  22 September, 2003

• CO03015 | Malaysia’s Opposition to the Iraq War: A Matter of Principle or Expediency?

  11 April, 2003

• CO03006 | of Chinese Politics in Malaysia’s Ruling

  12 March, 2003

• CO02018 | Desecuritising the “Illegal Indonesian Migrant Worker” problem in Malaysia’s relations with Indonesia

  16 September, 2002

Interreligious Relations

• Interreligious Relations (IRR) Issue 5 - Religion, Nationalism and Politics in Southeast Asia: The Ambivalence of the Sacred in an Uncertain World

  25 June, 2019

Authored Books

• Navigating Uncertainty: Our Region in an Age of Flux. Singapore: World Scientific, 2024
• Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Routledge, 2022

Journal Articles

• “Contemplating US Policy on China and the Indo-Pacific: Some Thoughts Regarding a Possible Biden Administration” (with Amanda Trea Phua) in The Asan Forum, 2020
• “Special Issue: Essays in Memory of Michael Leifer” (with Ralf Emmers) in The Pacific Review, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2005

Edited Books / Special Issues

• Research Handbook on the Belt and Road Initiative (with Hong Liu, and Xue Gong), Eds. : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021
• International Relations and Asia’s Southern Tier: ASEAN, Australia, and India (with Gilbert Rozman), Eds. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
• Order and Security in Southeast Asia: Essays in Memory of Michael Leifer (with Ralf Emmers), Eds. London: Routledge, 2006

Chapters in Edited Books

• “Introduction to the Research Handbook on the Belt and Road Initiative” (with Hong Liu, and Xue Gong) in Joseph Liow Chin Yong, Hong Liu and Xue Gong (Eds.), Research Handbook on the Belt and Road Initiative. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021, pp. xx-xxiii
• “Conclusion: BRI, COVID-19 and the Future, Research Handbook on the Belt and Road Initiative” (with hong liu, and Xue Gong) in Joseph Liow Chin Yong, Hong Liu and Xue Gong (Eds.), Research Handbook on the Belt and Road Initiative. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021, pp. 439-448
• “The Southeast Asian Dimension: The ASEAN Model of Integration” (with Joel Ng) in A. Voskressenski & B. Koller (eds.), The Regional World Order: Transregionalism, Regional Integration, and Regional Projects across Europe and Asia. New York: Lexington Books, 2019, pp. 103-122
• “What if Singapore Has to Choose between China and the United States?” in Jiang Yulin, Insights on Singapore’s Politics and Governance from Leading Thinkers. Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies, 2019, p. 1
• Liow, Joseph Chinyong, and Rajni Gamage. “The Quest for Regional and Domestic Stability.” in Southeast Asian Affairs 2014, edited by Daljit Singh, 3-19. ISEAS Publishing, 2014.
• Liow, Joseph and Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman. “Dancing with China: Comparing Thailand and Malaysia’s Experiences” in Tang Shiping, Li Minjiang and Amitav Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
• Tan, See Seng, and Joseph Liow Chin Yong. 2008. “Southeast Asia.” In From Superpower to Besieged Global Power: Restoring World Order after the Failure of the Bush Doctrine, edited by Edward Kolodziej and Roger Kanet, 115–33. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press.

Working Papers

• The East Asia Summit and the Regional Security Architecture (with Ralf Emmers, and Tan See Seng), Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, College Park, MD: University of Maryland, 1 January 2011

Op-Eds

• “The Uncompromising Message from Biden’s State of the Union Address”, The Straits Times, 11 February 2023
• “Unpacking Putin’s Narratives on the War with Ukraine”, The Straits Times, 21 May 2022
• “US-ASEAN Ties – The Goldilocks Quest Continues”, The Straits Times, 29 January 2022
• “The Enduring Political Role of Monarchies in Southeast Asia”, The Straits Times, 7 August 2021
• “Malaysian Politics Needs a Reset” (with Ariel Tan), Nikkei Asia, 26 July 2021
• “In Malaysia, what lies beneath the divorce of Umno and Muhyiddin’s Bersatu?” (with Ariel Tan), South China Morning Post, 24 July 2021
• “A New Fork in the Road for the DAP”, The Straits Times, 12 June 2021
• “Sino-US Decoupling: Breaking Up is Hard to Do”, The Straits Times, 17 April 2021
• “Umno – and Malaysia – at the crossroads” (with Ariel Tan), The Straits Times, 8 February 2021
• “A Reshuffled Deck Awaiting the Biden Administration in Asia”, The Straits Times, 28 November 2020
• “Now More than Ever, Southeast Asia Values a Firm American Security Presence”, ThinkChina, 27 November 2020
• “US’ Asia Policy – 3 Areas for a Rethink”, The Straits Times, 24 October 2020
• “The Pyrrhic Victory of Pandemic Politics”, The Straits Times, 2 May 2020
• “Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Malay Dominance: Malaysia’s “3M” Dilemma”, The Straits Times, 7 March 2020
• “Malaysia’s Elusive Vision 2020”, The Straits Times, 4 January 2020
• “US-China Tech Ties: Breaking up is Hard to Do”, The Straits Times, 19 November 2019
• “Bridging the Sciences and the Humanities”, The Straits Times, 19 October 2019
• “Beyond the Pomp and Circumstance of Trump’s Pyongyang Policy”, The Straits Times, 23 July 2019
• “Shangri-La Dialogue: Blind Spots in America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy” (with Amanda Trea Phua), The Straits Times, 3 June 2019
• “Sino-US Relations: What has Race Got to Do with it?”, The Straits Times, 28 May 2019
• “Back to the Future for East Malaysia?”, The Straits Times, 9 April 2019
• “A Case for the Humanities in the Age of Robots”, The Straits Times, 14 February 2019
• “Season of Gridlock Ahead, But Not for US Policy on Asia”, The Straits Times, 20 November 2018
• “Myths and Realities of Indonesian-Malaysian “Blood Brotherhood””, The Straits Times, 11 August 2018
• “A New Dawn in Malaysia”, The Straits Times, 12 May 2018
• “Malaysia Election: A Black Swan, a Dark Horse, and an Elephant in the Room”, The Straits Times, 7 April 2018
• “Trump’s Roller-coaster of a First Year in Office”, The Straits Times, 20 January 2018
• “ASEAN After 50: Looking Back to Look Forward”, The Straits Times, 9 December 2017
• “Is US Engagement Back on Track in East Asia?”, The Straits Times, 14 November 2017
• “Positive Signs for a Southern Philippine Peace” (with Joseph Franco), Global Brief, 17 June 2013
• Franco, Joseph and Joseph Liow Chin Yong. "Air of Optimism as Peace Takes Root in Mindanao." The Straits Times, February 25, 2013.
• Tan, See Seng, and Joseph Liow Chin Yong. 2005. “Case for an East Asian Security Order.” The Straits Times, 1 March.
• Tan, See Seng, and Joseph Liow Chin Yong. 2005. “Case for an East Asian Security Order.” The Straits Times, 1 March.
• Tan, See Seng, and Joseph Liow Chin Yong. 2004. “A Step Back in China’s ‘Charm Offensive.’” The Straits Times, 22 July.
• Tan, See Seng, and Joseph Liow Chin Yong. 2004. “A Step Back in China’s ‘Charm Offensive.’” The Straits Times, 22 July.