Dr. Yih-Jye Hwang is a critical International Relations (IR) scholar whose research advances decolonial and pluralist understandings of global politics from East Asian perspectives. He received his PhD in International Relations from Aberystwyth University and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Leiden University College, Leiden University.

Dr. Hwang’s interdisciplinary scholarship examines the cultural, historical, and discursive foundations of international relations in East Asia. Drawing on poststructuralist, postcolonial, and genealogical approaches, his work investigates how concepts such as identity, sovereignty, human security, and legitimacy are constructed and mobilized across diverse contexts. He emphasizes the epistemic agency of non-Western societies and challenges the dominance of Eurocentric paradigms in IR theory.

His current project, The Births of International Studies in China and Taiwan, traces the emergence and evolution of IR as an academic discipline in Chinese-speaking regions. The project highlights how colonial legacies, intellectual translation, and institutional developments shaped the localized trajectories of international studies in East Asia. This research contributes to the growing fields of post-Western and pluriversal IR by incorporating multiple ontologies, epistemologies, and historical experiences into the theorization of international relations.

Dr. Hwang serves on the editorial board of Pluriversal International Relations (Bristol University Press), a leading journal committed to advancing decolonial, relational, and non-West-centric IR scholarship. Through his editorial and scholarly work, he contributes to the theoretical development and institutional consolidation of post-Western IR.

In addition to his theoretical contributions, Dr. Hwang is actively engaged in policy-relevant research on cross-Strait relations, U.S.–China–Taiwan dynamics, and China–Europe relations. His critical analyses situate contemporary geopolitical tensions within broader cultural, discursive, and normative frameworks. His commentaries have appeared in outlets such as the Asia Pacific Bulletin, and he frequently participates in high-level policy dialogues across Europe and Asia.

Dr. Hwang’s academic publications have appeared in leading journals such as Review of International Studies, Journal of Chinese Political Science, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, and International Relations. He is the co-author of China and International Theory: The Balance of Relationships (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of Maritime and Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea (Routledge, 2021) and the forthcoming volume Genealogy of International Relations in Asia (Bristol University Press, 2026). Across his research, Dr. Hwang advocates for a more inclusive, relational, and historically grounded IR that reflects the plural realities of world politics.