Cheng-Chwee Kuik is Professor of International Relations and Head of Asian Studies at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), National University of Malaysia (UKM). Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Princeton-Harvard “China and the World” Program and a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University. Professor Kuik’s research focuses on small-state foreign and defence policies, Asian security, and international relations. He served as Head of the Writing Team (2019-2020) for the Government of Malaysia’s inaugural Defence White Paper. Currently he serves as a member of the Consultative Council on Foreign Policy, Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Cheng-Chwee’s publications have appeared in such peer-reviewed journals as International Affairs, Pacific Review, Journal of Contemporary China, Chinese Journal of International Politics, and Contemporary Southeast Asia. Cheng-Chwee’s essay, “The Essence of Hedging”, won the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies’ Michael Leifer Memorial Prize. He is co-author (with David Lampton and Selina Ho) of Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia (2020) and co-editor (with Alice Ba and Sueo Sudo) of Institutionalizing East Asia (2016). His current projects include: hedging in international relations, elite legitimation and foreign policy choices, and the host-country agency in connectivity cooperation. Cheng-Chwee serves on the editorial boards/committees of Contemporary Southeast Asia, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Asian Perspective, Asian Politics and Policy, International Journal of Asian Studies, and East Asian Policy. He holds an M.Litt. from the University of St. Andrews and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University.