Talk Synopsis
What are the likely impacts of the Second Trump Administration on Asia’s geopolitical landscapes? How will Asian countries respond to emerging challenges and risks amid greater uncertainties globally? Why must ASEAN and ASEAN-plus partners cultivate and create more, not less, circles of continuous cooperation across domains in the Trump 2.0 era? This forum offers perspectives from China and Southeast Asia, featuring Professor Zhang Yun (Nanjing University) and Professor Kuik Cheng-Chwee (IKMAS, UKM).
Speaker’s Profile
Dr. ZHANG Yun has been appointed Professor of International Relations, Nanjing University, China (starting January 2025). He was Associate Professor of International Relations and Deputy Director of the International Center at Niigata University, Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. in law from Peking University and Ph.D. in International Relations from Waseda University. His research expertise includes China-Japan-U.S. trilateral relations, Chinese politics and diplomacy, international relations in the Asia Pacific and ASEAN, and international relations theory. He had held visiting positions at Free University of Berlin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), University of Hong Kong, etc. Professor Zhang has published seven monographs and numerous papers in leading English, Chinese, and Japanese academic journals.
Dr. KUIK Cheng-Chwee is Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), National University of Malaysia (UKM) and concurrently a non-resident senior fellow at Johns Hopkins’ SAIS Foreign Policy Institute. Professor Kuik’s research focuses on the external policies of small and secondary states, big powers in the Indo-Pacific, Asian security, and international relations. His publications have appeared in such peer-reviewed journals as International Affairs, Pacific Review, Chinese Journal of International Politics, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, and Contemporary Southeast Asia. Cheng-Chwee holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He has been on Stanford University’s Top 2% Scientists list, subfield International Relations, for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024).