Ann Marie Murphy is conducting a research project entitled, “Great Power Rivalries, Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand: Exploring the Linkages” as a Fulbright Scholar under the ASEAN Research Program.  She will conduct the Indonesia-based research at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in January and February 2020.

This project seeks to understand how international structural changes and domestic politics are influencing the foreign policy decision-making processes and strategic choices of three key Southeast Asian states; Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.  Southeast Asian states are making foreign policy decisions in a rapidly changing strategic environment characterized by China’s rise, the Trump administration’s dramatic policy shifts, intensifying Sino-American rivalry and the increasing engagement of extra-regional actors like Japan and India.  At the same time, political contestation is increasing in all Southeast Asian countries, raising the salience of domestic political variables in foreign policy decision-making.  The future of the Indo-Pacific will be determined in part by the alignment choices of Southeast Asian countries, and this project seeks to better understand the factors influencing those choices.

Ann Marie Murphy is a professor in the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, and a Senior Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute Columbia University.  She received her PhD in political science from Columbia University.  Her research and publications have focused on ASEAN, the foreign policy of Southeast Asian states, US foreign policy toward Asia, and the governance of non-traditional security issues.