Dr Sung-Young Kim is Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations. His expertise is on the government-business relationship in promoting high-technology development. His work has focused on the experience of the East Asian countries including South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and China. Having previously served as Chair of the Discipline of Politics and International Relations (2023-2026), he is currently Deputy Editor (Korea/Japan) of the international academic journal, Asian Studies Review, and is also on the International Advisory Board of Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy, a book series published by Palgrave Macmillan. He was the Chair of the Organising Committee for the 2021 APSA Annual Conference hosted by Macquarie University. 

With funding from the Australian Research Council and the Academy of Korean Studies, his research has been published in Review of International Political Economy (twice), New Political Economy (twice), Energy Policy, Politics and Society, Global Policy, Journal of Enviroment and Development, Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, and The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. In 2023, he co-authored a book entitled Developmental Environmentalism: State Ambition and Creative Destruction in East Asia's Green Energy Transition (with Oxford University Press).

He has served as Reviewer for leading journals and book publishers in the field including those mentioned above and others such as International Politics, Environmental Politics, Futures, Administration and Society, Journal of Development Studies, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Globalizations, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Journal of Communication, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Contemporary Politics, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Oxford University Press, and Bloomsbury.

Dr Kim has published over thirty opinion pieces in international media outlets such as Project Syndicate, The Korea Times, Japan Times, Taipei Times, The Conversation, and East Asia Forum. He has been consulted by organisations, or organisations representing, the Australian Treasury, Australian Department of Defence, New Zealand Treasury, European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT), and the Canadian Government’s Net-Zero Advisory Board (NZAB).

He has supervised four PhD projects, eight Master of Research/Master of Philosophy projects, and nineteen Honours thesis projects to completion, and has examined eleven PhD and Masters disserations.

After undertaking doctoral training in the Department of Government and International Relations at The University of Sydney (2009), he was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at The University of Auckland, New Zealand (2012-2016). He has held visiting positions at Seoul National University, Korea University, and Waseda University.

COMPLETED POSTGRADUATE SUPERVISIONS:

DOCTORAL PROJECTS:

2026. Simran Keshwani. 'Asia’s “Other” Giant: The Political Economy of India’s Clean Energy Transition'.

2015. Jianglin (Jenny) Qin ‘China in the Climate Change Regime Complex: The Efficiency of the Climate Change Regime Complex and a Discussion of the Bottom-up Approach’ (Co-Supervisor).

2014. Xiang Gao ‘Understanding China as a Responsible Power in International Society' (Co-Supervisor).

2015. Corey John Wallace ‘The Evolution of the Japanese Strategic Imagination and Generation Change’ (Co-Supervisor).

MASTERS-BY-RESEARCH PROJECTS:

2021. Simran Keshwani 'Creating a Renewables Giant: The Rise of National Champions in India’s Solar Sector'.

2020. Sophie Pantcheff 'The Financialization of the UK Economy: Helping or Hindering Industrial Development?'.

2019. Kieran Donelly 'Cultural Statecraft The Confucius Institute Project in Australia'.

2016. Le-Minh Si Truong ‘Climbing Up the Ladder - the Case of Vietnam and its Information Communication Technology industry’.

2015. Nicholas Mignacca ‘Latecomer Strategies in Forging a Renewable Energy Economy: An Examination of India’s Efforts in Building Domestic Capabilities in Renewable Energy Technology Industries’.

2015. Scott Russell ‘The Green Developmental State? The Political Limitations of Taiwan's Green Industry Policy’.

2014. Richard Hudson ‘Pursuing Techno-Nationalism in an Age of Globalisation: Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in Angola’.

2014. Lauren Gent ‘Governance of Green Growth in New Zealand: Intermittent, Ungoverned Interdependence’.

CURRENT MASTERS-BY-RESEARCH PROJECTS:

Siddharth Sivakumar Beena. 'Mobilising Private Capital for the Energy Transition: Evaluating Australia’s Green Finance Policy Instruments'.

CURRENT DOCTORAL PROJECTS:

Isabell Raue. 'European Representations of China's International Ordering Ambitions and the Role of Transatlantic Bias - Constructing China Narratives through Ontologically Securitised Western identities' (Co-Supervisor).

I am a teacher of International Relations, International Political Economy and Comparative Politics (East Asia) at all levels of study.

Masters:

POIR8490 International Political Economy

Undergraduate:

POIR3030 Global Political Economy

POIR3890 Australia and the Asia-Pacific Century