I am the HSBC Chair in Asian Research and an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, jointly appointed in the Department of Political Science and the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs. I also serve as Director of UBC’s Institute of Asian Research and as Associate Editor (Southeast Asia) for Pacific Affairs.

My research focuses on the political economy, governance, and development in Southeast Asia, with particular attention to democratization, ethnic politics, and Canada’s engagement with the Indo-Pacific region. I have a strong interest in Canadian foreign policy and international relations, especially concerning Southeast Asia. My work has been published in leading journals such as the American Political Science Review, Democratization, Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, Political Science Research and Methods, Journal of East Asian Studies, and Asian Survey.

In addition to my academic roles, I am a Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, an Associate Senior Fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Penang Institute in Malaysia. I regularly participate in Track 1.5 and Track 2 diplomatic dialogues and have delivered briefings and training sessions to the Canadian, US, and Southeast Asian governments. I have also consulted for organizations including the International Development Research Centre, the World Bank, and the Canada-ASEAN Business Council. I serve on the Executive Committee of the Southeast Asia Research Group, and was previously Chair of the American Political Science Association’s Southeast Asia Politics Related Group and Vice President of the Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies.

For more information about my work and an updated CV, please visit my personal website.

I was trained in the subfield of comparative politics and focus on issues including democratization, governance, ethnic politics, and the political economy of development, with a primary emphasis on Southeast Asia. My research increasingly examines the intersection of international relations and domestic politics to understand how geopolitical developments affect these issues. Within that context, I have also worked extensively on the Canada – Southeast Asia relationship. My research has appeared in leading political science and area studies journals, supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), among others.

Select publications (see CV for full list):

• “Regime Resilience in Malaysia and Singapore Revisited: Ideologically-Bounded Democracies?” – Oxford Research Encyclopedia, 2024.
• “Canada’s Evolving Relationship with the ASEAN Region” – in Charting New Waters: Assessing Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy One Year On, published by the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy, 2024.
• “Canada and Southeast Asia in the new Indo-Pacific era” – Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 29(2): 117-130, 2023 (with Grégoire Legault and Dominique Caouette) [editor reviewed].
• “Voting behaviour under doubts of ballot secrecy: reinforcing dominant party rule” (with Guillem Riambau) – Democratization, 30(5): 855-874, 2023.
• “Placebo Statements in List Experiments” (with Guillem Riambau) – Political Science Research and Methods, 9(1): 172-179, 2021.
• “Regional Identity Formation in Malaysia: Primacy of the Political Center and its Essentialized Ethnic Identities” (with Mohamed Salihin Subhan) – Asian Politics and Policy, 13(1): 37-55), 2021.
• “Four Arenas: Malaysia’s 2018 Election, Reform, and Democratization” (with Steven Oliver) – Democratization, 27(4): 662-680, 2020.
• “Language Politics, Education, and Ethnic Integration: The pluralist dilemma in Singapore” (with Elvin Ong and Dimitar Gueorguiev) – Politics, Groups, and Identities, 7(1): 89-108, 2019.
• “Rematch: Islamic Politics, Mobilisation, and the Indonesian Presidential Election” (with Dimitar Gueorguiev and Paul Schuler) – Political Science, 70(3): 240-252, 2018.
• “Canada’s Foreign Policy and Bureaucratic (Un)Responsiveness: Public Diplomacy in the Digital Domain” (with Julian Dierkes) – Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 24(2): 202-222, 2018.
• “Ethnic Segregation and Public Goods: Evidence from Indonesia” (with Yuhki Tajima and Krislert Samphantharak) – American Political Science Review, 112(3): 637-653, 2018.
• “Explaining Elections in Singapore: Dominant Party Resilience and Valence Politics” (with Steven Oliver) – Journal of East Asian Studies, 18(2): 129-156, 2018.
• “Federalism without Decentralization: Power Consolidation in Malaysia” – Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 34(3): 488-506, 2017.
• “Indonesia’s Decentralization Experiment: Motivations, successes, and unintended consequences” (with Yuhki Tajima and Krislert Samphantharak) – Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 33(2): 139-156, 2016.

I am interested in working with students whose work is relevant to issues of political development, particularly in Southeast Asia.

Postdoctoral supervision:

• Htet Thiha Zaw (Institute of Asian Research / School of Public Policy and Global Affairs), (2024 – )
• Elvin Ong (Institute of Asian Research / School of Public Policy and Global Affairs), (2018 – 2020), now Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore

PhD supervision:

• Nay Yan Oo (Political Science), 2023 –
• Constant Courtin (Political Science), 2019 –
• Isabel Chew (Political Science), 2017 – 2023
• Nathan Peng (Political Science), 2017 – 2023, now Singapore Management University

PhD committee:

• Fraser Germann (Anthropology), 2015 – 2023
• Salta Zhumatova (Political Science), 2014 – 2022, now postdoctoral fellow at Simon Fraser Uni

MA supervision:

• Dom Imnamkhao (Political Science), 2024 –
• Kaung Kyaw (Calvin) San (Political Science), 2023 –
• Ashiqin Ariffin (Journalism, co-supervision), 2023 —
• Viktoria Zlomanova (Political Science), 2021 – 2024
• Kah Mun Wan (Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability), 2021 – 2023
• Kylie Luu (Institute of Asian Research), 2014 – 2017
• Lotus Ruan (Institute of Asian Research), 2014 – 2016
• Clarrie Ng (Institute of Asian Research), 2014 – 2016

MA committee:

• Sungwook Park (Political Science), 2017 – 2019
• Peggy Lam (Journalism), 2015 – 2017

www.kaiostwald.meCLICK HERE for an updated version of my CV from my personal website.