Prof Joseph Liow (Joseph Chinyong Liow) is Dean of College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he is also Tan Kah Kee Chair in Comparative and International Politics and concurrently Senior Research Advisor for the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). He was previously Dean of RSIS from October 2014 to December 2018. He also previously held the inaugural Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC.
Joseph’s research interests encompass Muslim politics and social movements in Southeast Asia and the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Asia-Pacific region. Joseph is the author, co- author, or editor of 18 books, the most recent being Navigating Uncertainty: Our Region in an Age of Flux (World Scientific 2024), Islam and Political Power in Indonesia and Malaysia (Cambridge University Press Element Series 2022) and Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia, fifth edition (Routledge 2022). A regular columnist for the Straits Times, his commentaries on international affairs have also appeared in New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, National Interest, Nikkei Asian Review, Wall Street Journal, and South China Morning Post. He has testified to the United States Congress and been invited to deliver a special closed door briefing to the ASEAN Defence Minister’s Meeting. In addition to scholarship and policy analysis, Joseph has also consulted for a wide range of multinationals including Shell, BHP Billiton, Chevron, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Temasek, Total, and Statoil, as well as major global consultancies. He sits on the board of several peer- reviewed academic and policy journals, and is Singapore representative on the Experts and Eminent Persons Group of the ASEAN Regional Forum and the Trilateral Commission. He is also on the boards of the Social Science Research Council (Singapore), ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, and the National Arts Council. He will assume the position of Chairman, Middle East Institute on 1 September 2024.
He has degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nanyang Technological University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.