My research interests focuses on the intersection of international relations theory, security, and geopolitics. Specifically, I am interested in how interpretations of security and the geopolitical environment shape the discursive and empirical processes that galvanize regional formation and transformation in the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia.
Books
China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia: The Politics of State and Region-Building (New York: Routledge, 2021; Paperback, 2023)
China’s Military Modernization, Japan’s Normalization and the South China Sea Territorial Disputes (Gewerbestrasse: Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“The Technopolitics of State and Region-Building: Examining China’s Belt and Road Initiative in its Southwestern Frontier and Southeast Asia,” Chinese Journal of International Politics 18(3), 2025, 294-312 (with Phillip Guerreiro)
“Strategic Competition in the Indo-Pacific: Between Constrainment and Co-optation,” Connections: The Quarterly Journal 23(2), 2024, 9-22
“What American Policy Makers Misunderstand about the Belt and Road Initiative,” Parameters 54(2), 2024, 7-20 (with Phillip Guerreiro)
“What is Innocent? Freedom of Navigation vs. Coastal States’s Rights in the Law of the Sea,” Ocean Development & International Law 54(3), 2023, 349-372 (with Christine Bianco and Bibek Chand)
“The Impact of Chinese History on its Perception of Maritime Law in the South China Sea,” Territory, Politics, Governance, 2023 (with Christine Bianco)
“Sino-Russian Relations and the Ukraine War,” Parameters 52(3), 2022, 19-34 (with Kevin Modlin)
“Constituting the Indo-Pacific: Securitisation and the Processes of Region-Making,” International Quarterly for Asian Studies: Special Issue 52(1-2), 14-34, 2021 (with Bibek Chand)
“Southeast Asian Hedging and Indo-Pacific Strategies for Regional Balance: Managing China’s Rise,” The Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs 1(2), 2019, pp. 23-56 (with Bibek Chand & Kevin Modlin)
“Strategic Stability in the 21st Century: The Challenge of the Second Nuclear Age and the Logic of Strategic Interdependence,” Comparative Strategy 36(4), 2017, pp. 354-365
“Power Politics and Securitization: The Emerging Indo-Japanese Nexus in Southeast Asia,” Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies 4(2), 2017, pp. 310-324 (with Bibek Chand)
“Biting the Cow’s Tongue: Securitization and Capacity Building in the South China Sea,” Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 3(3), 2016, pp. 269-290 (with Thomas A. Breslin)
“Power Cycles and Security Complexes: Evolution of the East Asian Supercomplex,” Asia Politics & Policy 8(4), 2016, pp. 538-558
“A ‘Normal’ Japan and the Externalization of China’s Securitization,” Japan Studies Review Vol. XX, 2016, pp. 157-178
“Resistance and Assimilation: Transforming Security Roles of China’s Largest Muslim Minorities,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 36(2), 2016, pp. 282-293
Book Chapters
“The Philippines and the South China Sea,” in Security Dynamics in the South China Sea: Challenges and Opportunities, ed. Howard M. Hensel (New York: Routledge, 2024) (with Maria C. Ortuoste)
“Southeast Asia,” in Airpower in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific: Understanding Regional Security Dynamics, ed. Howard M. Hensel (New York: Routledge, 2020), 174-195 (with Maria C. Ortuoste)
Book Reviews
Review of James Manicom: Bridging Troubled Waters: China, Japan and Maritime Order in the East China Sea, Asia Politics & Policy 8(3), 2016, pp. 502-504
Review of Christopher Davidson: The Persian Gulf and Pacific Asia: From Indifference to Interdependence, Journal of Global South Studies 32(2), 2015, pp. 267-269