Rate My Professor Nicholas Khoo

Associate Professor Nicholas Khoo serves in the Politics Programme at the University of Otago, School of Social Sciences, where his research centers on China's foreign and security policy, international relations of Asia, International Relations theory, strategic studies, and Cold War history. He earned his BA from the University of California, Irvine, MA from Johns Hopkins University, and MPhil and PhD from Columbia University. Khoo teaches key courses including POLS 250: International Security, POLS 318: Chinese Foreign Policy, and POLS 540: International Relations Theory. He supervises doctoral theses on topics such as ASEAN and the sovereignty principle, Sino-Japanese relations since the 1910s, military adaptation, nuclear reactions, and India's naval power identity.

Khoo's publications include monographs 'China's Foreign Policy Since 1978: Return to Power' (Edward Elgar, 2020) and 'Collateral Damage: Sino-Soviet Rivalry and the Termination of the Sino-Vietnamese Alliance' (Columbia University Press, 2011). He co-authored 'China's Foreign Policy Since 1949: The Emergence of a Great Power' (Routledge, 2022), 'Security at a Price: The International Politics of U.S. Missile Defense' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), and 'Asian Security and the Rise of China: International Relations in an Age of Volatility' (Edward Elgar, 2013). Recent works feature the edited volume 'Indo-Pacific Security: US-China Rivalry and Regional States' Responses' (World Scientific Publishing Europe, 2024) with chapters by Khoo on the Trump administration's China engagement policy unraveling and New Zealand's foreign policy in the AUKUS era; 'Retooling New Zealand’s independent foreign policy for the AUKUS era: Mission impossible or mission for a new era?' (Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, 2024); and a chapter in 'Perspectives of two island nations: Singapore-New Zealand' (World Scientific, 2024). His expertise covers Chinese foreign policy, China-US relations, China's Asian relations, US alliances in Asia, nuclear proliferation, and Cold War topics, supporting media commentary through the University of Otago.