Asst Prof Lee Su-Hyun, Coordinator of the MSc (International Political Economy) Programme at RSIS, has received the MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant of $27,840 for a research project titled “The Political Dynamics of Protectionism: Origins and Consequences.” The project focuses on a book manuscript on American trade policy that examines how incumbent presidents and their parties strategically set trade policy for electoral and partisan goals, and to what extent the distributional consequences of trade affect voting behaviour in US presidential elections. As extensions, the project analyses how trade competition from low income countries, especially from China, has affected the rise of populism and anti-globalisation backlash in advanced industrial countries.