Senior Fellow, Asia Global Institute
Cheng-Chwee Kuik is a Senior Fellow of the Asia Global Institute. He is Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), National University of Malaysia (UKM), and concurrently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. 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 the external policies of small and secondary states, big powers in the Indo-Pacific, Asian security, and international relations. Cheng-Chwee is a regular invited speaker to international conferences and closed-door policy roundtables. His publications have appeared in such peer-reviewed journals as International Affairs, Pacific Review, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Chinese Journal of International Politics, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, and Contemporary Southeast Asia. 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). Cheng-Chwee’s essay, “The Essence of Hedging”, won ISEAS’s Michael Leifer Memorial Prize.
Cheng-Chwee serves on the editorial boards of Contemporary Southeast Asia, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Asian Politics and Policy, and several other international journals. He also served as Head of the Writing Team (2019-2020) for the Government of Malaysia’s inaugural Defence White Paper and a member of the Consultative Council on Foreign Policy, Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2023). He holds an M.Litt. from the University of St. Andrews and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
Kuik, C.C., Ahmad, A.R. (2025) “The Geopolitics of BRICS: Between (and Beyond) Institutional Balancing and Institutional Hedging.” In Towards a Future for BRICS+, eds. Heiwai Tang and Brian Wong Yue Shun. Hong Kong University Press, forthcoming.
Kuik, C.C. (2024) “Explaining Hedging: The Case of Malaysian Equidistance.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 46(1): 43-76.
Kuik, C.C. (2024) “Southeast Asian Responses to the U.S.-China Tech Competition: Hedging and Economy-Security Tradeoffs.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 29: 509-538.
Kuik, C.C. and Jamil, N. S. (2024). “The Feasibility and Future of Middle-state Hedging.” East Asian Policy 16(4): 7-28.
Kuik, C.C., Benny G. (2024) “Linking Local Insights to Global IR: Locating Malaysian Contours and Contributions.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 43(3): 357-386.
Lampton, D.M., Da W., Kuik, C.C. (2024) U.S.-China-Southeast Asia Relations: Challenges and Opportunities for Regional Cooperation, The Asia Foundation Report. Washington, DC: The Asia Foundation.
Kuik, C.C. (2024) “Impossible Trinity Drives Prudent Hedging in Southeast Asia.” East Asia Forum 16(2): 15-16.
Kuik, C.C. (2024) “The Belt and Road Initiative at 10: Regional Perspectives on China’s Evolving Approach.” CSIS Interpret: China. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Kuik, C.C. (2023) “Malaysian Conceptions of International Order: Paradoxes of Small-State Pragmatism.” International Affairs 99(4): 1477-1497.
Kuik, C.C., Rosli Z. (2023) “Laos-China Infrastructure Cooperation: Legitimation and the Limits of Host-country Agency.” Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies 12(1): 32–58.
Kuik, C.C. (2023) “Navigating the Narratives of Indo-Pacific: ‘Rules’, ‘Like-mindedness’, and ‘De-risking’ in the Eyes of Southeast Asia.” Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs 9: 51-56.
Kuik, C.C. (2023) “Active Neutrality: Malaysia in the Middle of U.S.-China Competition.” United States Institute of Peace.
Ferchen M., Kuik C.C. (2023) “EU-ASEAN Trade, Investment, and Connectivity Cooperation.”, In Reimagining EU-ASEAN Relations: Challenges and Opportunities, ed. Lizza Bomassi. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 31-38.
Kuik, C.C., Lai Y.M. (2023) “Deference and Defiance in Malaysia’s China Policy: Determinants of a Dualistic Diplomacy.” International Journal of Asian Studies, 1-20.
Kuik, C.C. (2023) “Shades of Grey: Riskification and Hedging in the Indo-Pacific.” The Pacific Review 36(6): 1181–1214.
Kuik, C.C. (2022) “Hedging via Institutions: ASEAN-led Multilateralism in the Age of the Indo-Pacific.” Asian Journal of Peacebuilding 10(2): 355-386.
Kuik, C.C., Tso C.D. (2022) “Hedging in Non-Traditional Security: The Case of Vietnam’s Disaster Response Cooperation.” Chinese Journal of International Politics 15(4): 422–442.
Kuik, C.C. (2022) “Southeast Asian States and ASEAN: A Center of Courtships and Cooperation., In The International Relations of Asia, 3rd edition, ed. David Shambaugh. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 189-227.
Kuik, C.C., Ahmad A.R., Wong A.R. (2022) “Malaysia and Northeast Asia: What Drives Small-State Forward Diplomacy.” Issues and Studies 58(3): 1-42.
Kuik C.C., Daniel T. (2022) “Malaysia’s Relations with the United States and China: Asymmetries (and Anxieties) Amplified.” Southeast Asian Affairs 2022, 211-231.
Kuik, C.C. (2022) “Locating Host-Country Agency and Hedging in Infrastructure Cooperation.” In The Rise of the Infrastructure State: How US-China Rivalry Shapes Politics and Place Worldwide, eds. Seth Schindler and Jessica DiCarlo. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 194-210.
Kuik, C.C. (2022) “The Politics of Thailand-China Railway Cooperation: Domestic Determinants of Smaller State BRI Engagement.” In China’s Belt and Road Initiative in ASEAN, eds. Suthiphand Chirathivat, Buddhagarn Rutchatorn, and Anupama Devendrakumar. Singapore: World Scientific, 223-250.
Kuik, C.C. (2021) “Elite Legitimation and the Agency of the Host Country: Evidence from Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand’s BRI Engagement.” In Global Perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative, ed. Florian Schneider. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 217-244.
Kuik, C.C. (2021) “Irresistible Inducement? Assessing China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia.” Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)’s Asia-Unbound.
Kuik, C.C. (2021) “Getting Hedging Right: A Small State Perspective.” China International Strategy Review 3: 300-315.
Kuik, C.C. (2021) “Asymmetry and Authority: Theorizing Southeast Asian Responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.” Asian Perspective 45(2): 255-276.
Lai Y.M., Kuik C.C. (2021) “Structural Sources of Malaysia’s South China Sea Policy.” Australian Journal of International Affairs 75(3): 277–304.
Kuik C.C. (2021). “The Twin Chessboards of US-China Rivalry: Impact on Geostrategic Supply and Demand in Post-Pandemic Asia.” Asian Perspective 45(1): 157-176.
Kuik C.C. (2020) “Hedging in Post-Pandemic Asia: What, How, and Why?” The Asan Forum.
Kuik C.C. (2020) “Connectivity and Gaps: The Bridging and Missed Links in China’s BRI in Southeast Asia.” In The Belt and Road and Global Governance, eds. Maria Adele Carrai, Jean-Christophe DeFraigne, and Jan Wouters. Northampton, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 76-95.
Lampton D.M., Ho S., Kuik C.C. (2020) Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia. California: University of California Press.
Room 326-348, Main Building
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam, Hong Kong