Soka University is a private, non-profit, four-year liberal arts college and graduate school located on 103-acres in the City of Aliso Viejo.

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Co-recipient Best Professor Award, Soka University of America

Best Paper Award, ISA-West Conference

The rebel state in society: governance and accommodation in Aceh, Indonesia

Strife of the soil? Unsettling transmigrant conflicts in Indonesia

‘Second-order’ ethnic minorities in Asian secessionist conflicts: problems and prospects

The Pacific Basin: An Introduction is a new textbook which provides an interdisciplinary and comparative overview of the emerging Pacific world. Interest in the Pacific Basin has increased markedly in recent years, driven largely by the rise of China as a global rival to the United States and Asian development more generally. Growth in eastern Asia, as well as in the western Americas, has led the Pacific Basin to evolve as a dynamic economic zone. To make sense of this transformation, the book:   Defines the Pacific Basin, locates it in academic research, and explains its importance.    Addressees the historical origins and evolution of the Pacific Basin and its sub-regions.   Introduces students to the historical and contemporary relationships, continuities and differences that characterize the region.   Incorporates analyses of colonialism and imperialism, migration and settlement, economic development and trade, international relations, war and memory, environmental policy, urbanization, mental and public health, gender, film, and literature.    Connects the diverse peoples of this vast area, explores their common challenges and the diverse responses to these challenges, and provides a window into the lived humanity of the Pacific Basin.   The Pacific Basin: An Introduction is a key textbook for undergraduate courses on the Pacific Basin, the Pacific Rim, International Studies, Geography, World History, and Globalization.

The Pacific Basin: An Introduction

This book points out a novel pattern in colonial intimacy - that Catholic colonizers tended to leave behind significant mixed communities while Protestant colonizers were more likely to police relations with local women. The varied genetic footprints of Catholic and Protestant colonizers, while subject to some exceptions, holds across world regions and over time. Having demonstrated that this pattern exists, this book then seeks to explain it, looking to religious institutions, political capacity, and ideas of nation and race.

Explaining the Genetic Footprints of Catholic and Protestant Colonizers

While typically the victims of war, civilians are not necessarily passive recipients of violence. What options are available to civilians in times of war? This book suggests three broad strategies - flight, support, and voice. It focuses on three conflicts: Aceh, Indonesia; Patani, southern Thailand; and Mindanao, southern Philippines.

Civilian Strategy in Civil War: Insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines (Politics, Economics, and Inclusive Development)

I am a Political Scientist (PhD: UBC 2011) teaching in International Studies at Soka University of America, where I am the Associate Director of the Pacific Basin Research Center.  I have worked for Asian Human Rights NGOs (Forum Asia) as well as the Carter Center, the Canadian Government, and the European Union.  My research and teaching interests related to politics in Southeast Asia, armed conflict, state and society, democratization, and religious politics.

My books include Civilian Strategy in Civil War: Insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines (Palgrave 2014, available here), Explaining the Genetic Footprint of Catholic and Protestant Colonizers (Palgrave 2015, available here), and The Pacific Basin: An Introduction (co-edited with Michael Weiner, Routledge 2017).

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