Emerging Perspectives on the Historical International Relations of Asia

This seminar brings together three emerging scholars whose research represents the vibrant new directions in the historical study of International Relations in Asia. While their projects differ in empirical scope and focus, all three contribute to a shared effort to rethink how Asian historical experiences can enrich, challenge, and expand the theoretical foundations of IR.
 

Speakers
Tommy Chai (PhD Candidate, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University). Theorising Global IR through Regional Peripheries: Southeast Asia between Civilisations, Empires, and Great Powers

Dr. Frieder G. Dengler (Recent PhD Graduate, School of International Service PhD Holder, American University). ‘An Affair of State’: Diplomatic Encounters in the Constitution of East Asian and European Inter-Polity Orders

Kayeon Roh (PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Southern California). Emperor at Home, King Abroad: Coexistence of Multiple Emperors in Historical East Asia

Chair & Discussant
Manjeet S. Pardesi (Associate Professor of International Relations, Political Science and International Relations Programme, Victoria University of Wellington)
 

Profiles
Tommy Chai is the coordinator of GRADNAS and a PhD Candidate in International, Political, and Strategic Studies from the Australian National University. His dissertation examines Southeast Asia’s approach to great-power management from 1800 to the end of the Cold War. He is the recipient of the International Studies Association’s Barbara Tuchman Award for Best Paper in Historical International Relations. His research on historical China-Southeast Asia relations has featured in The Chinese Journal of International Politics.

Frieder G. Dengler holds a Ph.D. in international relations from American University. His research examines both historical inter-polity orders and encounters between them as well as institutional overlap in contemporary global governance. Frieder previously held appointments as a predoctoral fellow with the U.S.-Asia Grand Strategy Program at the University of Southern California and a dissertation fellow with the United States Institute of Peace.

Kayeon Roh is a PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations (POIR) at the University of Southern California. Specializing in international relations of historical East Asia, she works on international and inter-regional evolution and translation of political concepts that constitute world orders. Kayeon has earned her bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Chicago.

Manjeet S. Pardesi is Associate Professor of International Relations in the Political Science and International Relations Programme, and Asia Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests include Historical International Relations, Great Power Politics, Asian security, and the Sino-Indian rivalry. He is the co-author of Divergent Worlds: What the Ancient Mediterranean and Indian Ocean Can Tell Us About the Future of International Order (with Amitav Acharya, Yale University Press, 2025) and The Sino-Indian Rivalry: Implications for Global Order (with Sumit Ganguly and William R. Thompson, Cambridge University Press, 2023). His articles have appeared in European Journal of International Relations, Security Studies, Survival, Global Studies Quarterly, Asian Security, Australian Journal of International Affairs, International Politics, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, International Studies Perspectives, Nonproliferation Review, Air & Space Power Journal (of the United States Air Force), The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, World Policy Journal, India Review, Defense and Security Analysis, and in several edited book volumes. He is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of India’s National Security (Oxford, 2018) and India’s Military Modernization: Challenges and Prospects (Oxford, 2014). He is the Managing Editor of the journal Asian Security (since June 2018).

 

This event is the sixth in the GRADNAS Seminar Series of 2024. The series showcases the emerging scholarship on the historical International Relations of Asia. There has been a “global” and a “historical” turn in International Relations scholarship in recent years. Scholars are increasingly looking at Asian history to enrich International Relations theory. What are the theoretical insights that emerge from studying Asian history? Does Asian history provide us with new concepts and new understandings of order? Does Asian history challenge the received metanarratives of International Relations theory? How were historical Asian polities connected with each other and with the world beyond Asia? Can the International Relations theoretical findings from Asian history shed light on other parts of the world? What, if anything, do these findings tell us about the emerging world order? Join us as we celebrate and showcase the excellent research by GRADNAS members and friends on the Historical International Relations of Asia. Visit our websitehere.

For more information, contact the GRADNAS Coordinator, Tommy Chai at gradnas@anu.edu.au.