Diplomacy Professor Selected for Fulbright ASEAN Research Program U.S. Senior Scholar Award

Ann Marie Murphy, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Foreign Policy Studies at Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations, and senior research scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, was selected for a Fulbright ASEAN Research Program U.S. Scholar Award for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Her project, “Geostrategic Challenges, Domestic Politics, and Foreign Policy in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore,” will examine how these three countries are responding to international challenges such as US-China geostrategic competition, and how domestic politics are increasingly influencing foreign policy in these three countries. Professor Murphy plans to collaborate with colleagues at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia, the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies at the National University of Malaysia, and the Rajaratnam School of International Affairs at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Since this is a comparative project, Murphy’s research will include consultations with academics, journalists, policymakers, businesspeople, and other analysts at these academic institutions.  

Murphy noted that “Southeast Asian states are making foreign policy decisions in a rapidly changing strategic environment characterized by intensifying Sino-American rivalry, increasing regional engagement by states such as Japan, Australia, and India, and the rise of violent conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. At the same time, all Southeast Asian countries are experiencing political change that raises the salience of domestic political factors in foreign policy decision-making. My project seeks to understand how international structural changes and domestic politics are influencing the strategic choices of three important Southeast Asian states: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.”

Why Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore?
Murphy explained that these countries were chosen for three reasons. First, they have defied predictions that Southeast Asian states will bandwagon with or balance against China. Second, they are influential in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and working to support the institution. Third, they differ in size, economic characteristics, and demographics that create divergent foreign policy incentives.

International Relations theories predict that as U.S.- China competition intensifies Southeast Asia’s smaller states will be forced to choose between Washington and Beijing. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, Murphy observed, have defied these predictions so far. Rather than balance or bandwagon, these three countries are all hedging, she notes. Hedging is an attempt to preserve a state’s strategic autonomy by engaging both sides, attempting to minimize provocation to either side, and reserving the flexibility to balance in the future if either side becomes a direct threat. Southeast Asian states have also sought to diversify their ties with Japan, South Korea, and India (among others) to reduce their dependence on both Washington and Beijing. In contrast, some small mainland Southeast Asian countries have aligned with China, while the Philippines is a U.S. Treaty ally.

“Professor Murphy’s selection as a Fulbright scholar affirms both her high level of scholarship, and the importance of the topics she researches. Her work and this award elevate Seton Hall’s research reputation,” said Erik Lillquist, J.D., Interim Provost & Executive Vice President, and Professor of Law.

Murphy added: “My goal is to ‘map’ the foreign policy-making process and assess the interests of key actors in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore to understand why specific policies have been adopted in the past and to anticipate the coalitions that are likely to arise in support of, or opposition to, decisions to balance, bandwagon or hedge.” These are vital international issues. Murphy explained that “this project is theoretically and empirically significant. Theoretically, the field of international relations is often called the study of great powers, and there is a gap in the literature on the strategic behavior of small and middle powers, particularly non-Western ones, that this project seeks to fill. Furthermore, this project’s focus on how domestic politics influences Southeast Asian’s foreign policy outcomes is important because they are vastly underemphasized in the existing literature. Empirically, the future of the Indo-Pacific will be determined not only by decisions made in Washington and Beijing, but also by policy choices made in Southeast Asian capitals. Therefore, analyzing how and why Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean strategic behavior is changing provides insight into how the current power transition in the Indo-Pacific may evolve.”

What the Future Holds
Murphy’s research focuses on Southeast Asian international politics and political change, with a focus on Indonesia. A few themes she has explored recently include the power transition in the Asia-Pacific, the impact of democracy on the policy making process in emerging powers, and transnational threats in Southeast Asia.

Her edited volume, Southeast Asia Views the United States: Perceptions, Policies and Prospects (2025), examines the region’s bilateral relationships with the United States from the Southeast Asian perspective. She is coauthor (with Amy Freedman) of Non-Traditional Security Issues in Southeast Asia: The Transnational Dimension (2018) and co-editor (with Bridget Welsh) of Legacies of Engagement in Southeast Asia (2008). Her articles have appeared in journals such as Asian Security, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Orbis, Asia Policy, World Politics Review, and PS: Political Science & Politics.  

Murphy’s research has been supported by grants from the Smith Richardson Foundation, the National Asia Research Program, the Social Science Research Council, and the Fulbright Scholars Program, and she was recently a Mansfield-Luce Asia Scholar. She serves on the editorial board of Asia Policy and the board of directors of the Center for Khmer Studies and is a cofounder of the New York Southeast Asia Network (NYSEAN), a Luce Foundation-funded initiative to promote Southeast Asian studies in the United States. She earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University.

To read more about Ann Marie Murphy’s research, visit here.

To learn more about the Center for Foreign Policy Studies, visit here. 

Categories: Nation and World, Research