Richard J. Heydarian

Richard Javad Heydarian is an Asia-based academic and policy adviser, currently a Professorial Chairholder in Geopolitics at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and previously Visiting Fellow at National Chengchi University (Taiwan). He has delivered lectures at the world’s leading universities, including Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia universities, and is the author of, among other books, The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt against Elite Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and The Indo-Pacific: Trump, China, and the New Struggle for Global Mastery (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). As a columnist, he has written for the world’s leading publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and is a regular contributor to Aljazeera English, Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post , and the Straits Times.

A dangerous deadlock over Taiwan

On January 13, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secured an unprecedented consecutive third term in office – the first since the introduction of direct presidential elections in 1996. Former Vice-President William Lai Ching-te…

China’s paradox of power: consolidated at home, contested overseas

The sheer breadth and speed of China’s rise has been the most consequential geopolitical event of our era. Within a single generation, the Asian powerhouse has transformed from an impoverished nation into the world’s leading manufacturing…

The Taiwan crisis: Sleepwalking towards a global conflict

In one of her most haunting passages, the historian Barbara Tuchman once described Europe, in the run up to the World War I, as “a heap of swords piled as delicately as jackstraws; one could not be pulled out without moving the others.” No…

Global Infrastructure Development: China, Biden and the New Pivot of 21st Century Geopolitics

Over the past decade, infrastructure development has emerged as a primary tool of global influence. This should come as no surprise since, to begin with, there is a massive global infrastructure spending gap. According to the Asian…

The fall and rise of Japan

The upcoming Olympics mean a lot to Japan, a once sparkling economic superpower that has grappled with multiple crises in recent decades. Successfully hosting the event, against all odds and after billions of dollars of investments, would…

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