FASS Staff Profile

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR REUBEN YP WONG
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT (GLOBAL RELATIONS) / DEPUTY HEAD, POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT / RESIDENT FELLOW, COLLEGE OF ALICE & PETER TAN (CAPT)
DEPARTMENT of POLITICAL SCIENCE

Appointment:
DEPUTY HEAD
Office:
Email:
polwongr@nus.edu.sg
Tel:
66012846 (CAPT)
Fax:
Homepage:
http://nus.academia.edu/ReubenWong
Tabs

Brief Introduction

Reuben Wong is Associate Vice President (Global Relations) in the National University of Singapore, and Deputy Head in the Political Science Department (Oct 2022- ). The founding Director of Studies (2012-19) at the College of Alice and Peter Tan (CAPT), he is now a Resident Fellow in CAPT.  Reuben held the first Jean Monnet Chair in Singapore (2013-16). A former diplomat, he was First Secretary in the Singapore Embassy in Paris (1995 -1998). He earned an M.Phil in European Politics at Oxford, and a PhD in International Relations at the LSE. Reuben’s publications have focused on EU and French foreign policy. They include The Europeanization of French Foreign Policy: France and the EU in East Asia​ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), National and European Foreign Policies​ (co-edited with Christopher Hill, Routledge, 2011), and journal articles in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Politique Européenne, Asia Europe Journal, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, and EU External Affairs Review. He has held visiting positions at Cambridge University (2005), the LSE (European Institute, 2008), the Stimson Center (Wash, DC, 2009), the East Asian Institute (Singapore, 2011), and Humboldt University (Berlin, 2014). His current research interests include identity in foreign policy, the EU’s relations with ASEAN & China, and the politics of disability. A Fulbright scholar (2009), he is an Associate Fellow at the EU Centre Singapore, and Senior Research Affiliate (EU-China programme) at the College of Europe in Bruges.  He sat on the Council of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA, 2005-17), and is now on the Board of Governors of the Singapore International Foundation (2021-). He does consulting and media interviews on EU foreign policy, international relations, and Singapore/SE Asian politics; and guest lectures at the SciencesPo summer school in Paris. Reuben and his wife raise four children to help arrest Singapore's declining total fertility rate.


Teaching Areas

Main Teaching Modules

College of Alice & Peter Tan:
UTC1404          Power and Ideas
UTC2410a        Reconstructing Communities: Insights from the Balkans

Political Science:
PS4218             European Foreign Policy


Current Research

I am currently completing work in three international research projects regarding the EU's international relations or regional integration in ASEAN.  These should all be in print by the end of 2016:
1. The first is a Jean Monnet Multilateral Research Grant where six Jean Monnet Professors (in the universities of Essex, Maastricht, Singapore, Fudan and Renmin) successfully applied in 2013 for funding for a book project on “EU-China Security Cooperation” (Cambridge University Press) (http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~susyd/EUSC/project.htm).  I attended and presented at three workshops: in Brussels (Mar 2014); Beijing (Oct 2014) and Brussels (Nov 2015).  I co-write a chapter with Simon Duke (Maastricht) on the current state and future prospects of China-EU military cooperation.

2. The second is on the EU and China in global governance, coordinatedby Wang Jianwei and Song Weiqing from Macau University. It looks at China, the EU and the international politics of global governance with collaborators from Mainland China, Macau, Singapore and Europe. A conference was held in Macau in June 2014.  I co-write a chapter with Knud Erik Jorgensen (Denmark, former ECPR President) to explore social constructivist perspectives of China-EU relations. See http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137522221#.

3. In the third project - on “Crisis and Institutional Change in Regional Integration” (see https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138951839 and screenshot below) coordinated from the University of Grenoble.  (http://www.sciencespo-grenoble.fr/blog/membres/saurugger-sabine/).   I contribute a chapter on the impact of crises on integration (in human rights and environmental governance) in Southeast Asia.  

Future research projects:

1.  The Small State in ASEAN, the EU and the GCC:  A Study in Comparative Regionalism.  Researchers: Prof. Rory Miller (Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar), Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo (King’s College London) & Associate Professor  Reuben Wong (National University of Singapore).

2.  EU-ASEAN Security Cooperation.  Researchers: Prof Emil Kirchner (Essex University) & Associate Professor  Reuben Wong (National University of Singapore).


routledge 2016 book sabine.jpg | palgrave 2016 wang jw and song wq.jpg |

Research Interests

My main research area is European foreign policy.
Other interests include regionalism and integration theory, human rights, security, and Asia-Europe relations.


Publications

BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS AUTHORED

  • Reuben Wong and Christopher Hill (2011)(eds), National and European Foreign Policies: towards Europeanization?, London and New York: Routledge.
  • Reuben Wong (2006), The Europeanization of French Foreign Policy: France and the EU in East Asia, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.palgrave.com/products/Catalogue.aspx?is=1403995907.

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

  • R. Wong (2013). “The Rise of China: Making sense of EU responses”, Journal of Contemporary China Studies 2(2):111-128.
  • R. Wong (2013). “The issue of Identity in the EU-China relationship”, Politique Européenne 39, pp.117-143. Journal hyperlink
  • R. Wong (2012), "Model power or reference point? The EU and the ASEAN Charter", Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 25/4 (Dec): 669-682.  On http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09557571.2012.67830.
  • R. Wong (2012), "Still in Deficit: Perceptions of the EU’s Capabilities among Foreign Policy Elites in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam", EU External Affairs Review (vol.2), July, pp.34-45. Hyperlink to article
  • R, Wong (2012), "The Relativity of Decline. A Reappraisal of French Leadership and Influence in a Time of Global Crisis", Asia Europe Journal, Volume 9, Numbers 2-4, March 2012, pp.179-196. DOI: 10.1007/s10308-012-0310-x. See Springer Hyperlink)
  • R. Wong (2010), "Asian Integration - Scope and Limits", ISPI Analysis no.14, Milan: Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI). Hyperlink to ISPI article.
  • Reuben Wong (2008), “Towards a Common European Policy on China?: Economic, Diplomatic and Human Rights Trends since 1985”, in Current Politics and Economics of Asia 17/1 (Special Issue on The European Union and Asia), pp.155-82.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

  • R. Wong and S. Duke (2016), “Military Security”, in E. Kirchner, H. Dorussen and T. Christiansen (eds), EU-China Security Cooperation (Cambridge UP, forthcoming).
  • R. Wong (2016). “Crisis and Regional integration: Human rights and and environmental governance in ASEAN”, in Sabine Saurugger and Fabien Terpan (eds), Crisis and Institutional Change in Regional Integration (Routledge, forthcoming Apr 2016). see https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138951839
  • R. Wong and K.E. Jorgensen (2016), “Social Constructivist perspectives on China-EU Relations”, in Wang Jianwei and Song Weiqing (eds), China and the EU in Global Governance (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming). see http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137522221#
  • R. Wong and M.E. Wong (2015). “Social Impact of Policies for the Disabled in Singapore”, in David Chan (ed), 50 Years of Social Issues in Singapore Europe and Asia (Singapore: World Scientific), pp.147-166  http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789814632621_0009
  • R. Wong (2015). “Creeping supranationalism - learning from recent EU and ASEAN experiences”, in L. Brennan and P. Murray (eds), Drivers of Regionalism and Integration in Europe and Asia (London and New York: Routledge), pp.235-251.  see https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138819818
  • R. Wong and S. Tay (2014). “Asia and the Pivot”, in Hans Binnendijk (ed), A Transatlantic Pivot to Asia: Towards New Trilateral Partnerships (Washington, DC: Center for Transatlantic Relations). Hyperlink to PDF
  • R. Wong (2012). “An Anatomy of European and American perspectives on China in the International System”, in C. Roland Vogt (ed), Europe and China: Strategic Partners or Rivals (HK: Hong Kong University Press), pp.95-112. Google Books Hyperlink
  • R. Wong (2011). “Europeanisation of Foreign Policy”, in Christopher Hill and Michael Smith (eds), International Relations and the European Union, 2ed, Oxford: Oxford UP, pp.149-170.
  • Frédéric Charillon and R. Wong (2011), “France: Europeanization by Default?", in R. Wong and C. Hill (eds), National and European Foreign Policies: Towards Europeanization (London and New York: Routledge), pp.19-34.

SHORTER ARTICLES/COMMENTS IN JOURNAL

  • R. Wong (2014), “Academic Freedom in Spotlight”, Straits Times Forum, 7 March.  (Straits Times Hyperlink)
  • R. Wong (2011). “Educating all Children - Without Exceptions" (co-written with F. Crawford), op-ed in Today newspaper, 18 July (NUS Hyperlink).
  • Reuben Wong (2007), “l’Hexagone n’impose rien sans l’Europe” (pp.51-52.), in “Politique étrangère: La France n’en impose plus”, Alternatives Internationales (Paris) 34, March 2007, pp.48-59.
    http://www.alternatives-internationales.fr/article.php3?id_article=297

OTHERS

  • R. Wong (1988). “Full Circle”, poem published in The Straits Times, 9 January.
  • R. Wong (1987), “I Remember Boat Quay”, prize-winning poem published in The Straits Times 'Expressions' section, 7 November.
  • Reuben Wong, “Black Cat”, in Robert Yeo (ed.), Magic: A Collection of Poems Vol..2, Singapore: Longman, 1987.

Other Information

CAREER
Global Relations Office, NUS

  • Associate Vice President, Jan 2021- 
  • Academic Director, Jan 2019- Dec 2020

College of Alice & Peter Tan, NUS

  •    Resident Fellow, July 2019-
  •    Director of Studies,2012-19

Political Science Dept, NUS

  • Deputy Head (Oct 2022- )
  • Assistant Head, Political Science Department (2008-9)
  • Deputy Convenor, International Studies Programme (2006-9)
  • Assistant Professor, Political Science Department (Jan 2004) 

European Studies Programme, NUS
Senior Tutor, European Studies Programme (Feb 1999-July 2001)

  • Awarded NUS Overseas Graduate Scholarship to pursue Masters and PhD in European Politics/International Relations in the UK (on study leave Sep 1999-Dec 2003)             

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Assistant Director, Western Europe       1999
First Secretary and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of Singapore in Paris, France, 1995 - 1998
Country Officer i/c ASEAN-US dialogue, ASEAN Free-Trade Area, Vietnam and Philippines, 1993-4

Scholarships and Awards
2009                      Fulbright Visiting Fellow (April-July)                                                 Washington, DC
                   working on The role of the US in EU-China strategic relations
2008                      London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)             London, UK
·         Visiting Fellow, European Institute (29 March – 28 April)
2005                      University of Cambridge                                                                     Cambridge, UK
·         Visiting Scholar, Centre of International Studies (June-July)
2003                       Central Research Fund Scholarship, University of London        
·         £2000 Research funding for fieldwork in Paris, Vietnam and Brussels, 2003 Q1
2001                       Abelard Fund                                                                                        Oxford
·         Research funding for M.Phil fieldwork and interviews in Paris, summer 2001
1999-2003            NUS Overseas Graduate Scholarship                                                Singapore/UK
·         Scholarship to pursue Masters and PhD in European Politics/International Relations
1993       Special Book Prize for Political Science                                                           Singapore
·         Top NUS Direct Honours Student in Political Science

OTHER APPOINTMENTS
July 2015              Senior Research Affiliate, EU-China Programme in College of Europe, Bruges    Belgium             
July 2012-19          Director of Studies, College of Alice and Peter Tan, NUS
Aug 2009-             Associate Fellow, EU Centre                                                      Singapore
2005-17               Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA)                          Singapore
                           Council Member    http://www.siiaonline.org/
May 2004-             St Antony's College, Oxford University                                            UK
                           Liaison Officer, Antonians in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia (St Antony’s College Alumni
                              association http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk)


PROFESIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Singapore Institute for International Affairs (SIIA)
University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES)
European Union Studies Association (EUSA)
American Political Science Association (APSA)

LANGUAGES
English, Chinese, French, basic Spanish


Last Modified: 2023-07-03         Total Visits: 33456