Yuen Foong Khong

Khong Yuen Foong is Li Ka Shing Professor in Political Science at the School. He was formerly Professor of International Relations, and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1987 and was Assistant/Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Government Department from 1987-1994. His Ph.D. dissertation was awarded Harvard’s Sumner Prize for the best dissertation on war and peace in 1988. His book, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton, 1992; sixth printing 2006) was co-winner of the American Political Science Associations Political Psychology Book Award (1994). He also received the Erik Erikson Award for distinguished early career contribution to political psychology in 1996.

He has held grants from the Social Science Research Council (New York)-MacArthur Foundation Program on Security in a Changing World, the United States Institute of Peace, and the (U.K.) Leverhulme Trust. A former Vice-President of the International Studies Association (U.S.A), 1999-2000, he has also served on the Social Science Research Council-MacArthur Foundation Committee on International Peace and Security. His research interests include United States foreign policy, the international relations of the Asia Pacific, and cognitive approaches to international relations. Recent publications include “Power as Prestige in World Politics,” International Affairs (January 2019), “The American Tributary System,” The Chinese Journal of International Politics (2013) and “The United States Response to China’s Rise,” International Security, (2013/2014). He is currently working on two long term projects, International Politics: The Rules of the Game and The American Tributary System.

Research Areas

• ASEAN and Southeast Asia
• International Relations Theory
• International security