I hold an enduring interest in the norms and practices of ASEAN integration. This is largely shaped by my work experience at RSIS where I was a research analyst. This interest in ASEAN is almost-always examined through the lens of the ASEAN-China relation. In that way, my 2015 article ‘ASEAN’s norm adherence and its unintended consequences…

My work is heavily informed by Bourdieu’s practice theory (PT). In a nutshell, practice theorists take ‘practices’ (the doings, sayings and performances of humans) as the basic constituents of social reality and as the core units of analysis. My publications inspired by PT include: My 2019 article in the International Studies Review journal: Institutional Habitus, State…

Most of my research agenda has focused on Chinese foreign policy. Specifically I study China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and tease out MOFA’s empirical and theoretical significance in the field of Chinese foreign policy. I seek to answer questions such as China’s diplomacy and what role MOFA and its diplomats play in signaling, defending…