Benjamin Ho is Assistant Professor at the China Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore. He obtained his PhD from the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK under a RSIS PhD scholarship. His research focus includes the study of China’s international relations, with an emphasis on Chinese political worldview and exceptionalism thinking. Other research interests include security multilateralism in the Asia Pacific region with a focus on regional institutions and fora, national security (intelligence), the sociology of religion and public theology (Christianity). He is the author of the book China’s Political Worldview and Chinese Exceptionalism: International Order and Global Leadership (Amsterdam University Press, 2021). He has also published in journals such as China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, East Asia: An International Quarterly, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Asia Policy, and the Australian Journal of International Affairs. He was also a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University between November 2021 and February 2022.

• Security Multilateralism in the Asia Pacific Region With a Focus on Regional Institutions and Fora
• Chinese Foreign Policy and Ethical Philosophy
• National Security (Intelligence)
• Sociology of Religion

Annual Reviews

• Selected Essays by RSIS Researchers - 2020

  18 January, 2021

IDSS Papers

• IP24080 | Japan: The Indispensable Power in a Potential Second Trump Presidency

  04 October, 2024

• IP24056 | Putin’s Visit to Hanoi: Hardly a Challenge to Vietnam-US Strategic Partnership

  27 June, 2024

• IP24046 | Bound to Lead: US-China Relations and the Future of Global Leadership

  01 May, 2024

• IP23091 | Through Domestic Eyes: Chinese and Indian Responses to the Israel-Hamas Conflict

  28 December, 2023

• IP23066 | Will Thawing Japan-South Korea Relations Change the Security Landscape of Northeast Asia?

  18 September, 2023

• IP23055 | War in Ukraine and Cross-Straits Relations: Rhetoric, Response, and Reality

  31 July, 2023

• IP23038 | US-China Relations: Can the Rules-Based International Order Survive Great Power Competition

  26 April, 2023

• IP23006 | Living in the Dragon’s Shadow: Taiwan’s Identity Dilemma and a View from Southeast Asia

  11 January, 2023

• IP22061 | 20th CCP Congress: Key Storylines and the Future of China

  07 November, 2022

• IP22044 | Beijing's Gegenpressing Offensive against Taiwan: Will It Work?

  15 August, 2022

• IP22033 | Shangri-La Dialogue 2022 and the Future of Asia

  15 June, 2022

• IP22013 | The Limits of Russia-China Friendship: What are the Options for Beijing?

  11 March, 2022

• IP21024 | Cross-strait Relations and Saving Beijing's Face

  17 December, 2021

• IP21011 | Global Politics in a Multipolar Age: The Choice for Small States

  01 November, 2021

Working Papers

• WP256 | The Rising Chorus of Chinese Exceptionalism

  10 April, 2013

• WP249 | ASEAN's Centrality in a Rising Asia

  13 September, 2012

RSIS Commentary Series

• Blinken’s Beijing Visit: Private Conversations, Public Criticism

  21 June, 2023

• Biden-Xi: Emerging Clash of the United Fronts?

  15 June, 2021

• Intelligence Operations: Risks Faced by Academia

  12 August, 2020

• Peacetime SAF: Its Evolving Defence Role

  18 May, 2020

• Post COVID-19 World: Will It Reshape Global Leadership?

  06 April, 2020

• How China Sees the Indo-Pacific: What Next After AOIP?

  30 December, 2019

• PRC Turns 70: Five Elements of its Grand Strategy

  30 September, 2019

• The China Challenge: Contending Discourses on International Order

  30 November, 2018

• CO18062 | Will China Be a Responsible Great Power?

  03 April, 2018

• CO16315 | The Terrex Vehicles Issue: China Seizes Asia-Pacific Initiative

  28 December, 2016

• CO15225 | Xi’s State Visit to UK: Turning to British History for China’s Future

  22 October, 2015

• CO15067 | Lee Kuan Yew’s Leadership: Model for China?

  26 March, 2015

• CO14202 | The China Dream: Between Personal Aspiration and State Authoritarianism?

  15 October, 2014

• CO14082 | ASEAN Open Skies: Economic Integration and SAR

  07 May, 2014

• CO14059 | MH370: Limits of China’s Soft Power

  31 March, 2014

• CO14018 | Abe’s Call to Stand up to China: At What Cost?

  27 January, 2014

• CO13190 | Beijing’s ASEAN Embrace: Making Hay While the Sun Shines

  09 October, 2013

• CO13078 | ASEAN Unity: From Word to Deed

  26 April, 2013

• CO13036 | Beijing's Renewed Resolve: Treading the Path of Peaceful Development

  25 February, 2013

• CO12224 | China's New Leadership: How Reformist Will It Be?

  11 December, 2012

• CO12224 | China's New Leadership: How Reformist Will It Be?

  11 December, 2012

• CO12188 | ASEAN at 45: A Case for Principled Realism

  08 October, 2012

• CO12138 | Negotiating the World's Cyber Frontier

  30 July, 2012

• CO12097 | Beijing’s Leadership Transition: Testing Times for China

  11 June, 2012

• CO12059 | Seoul Nuclear Summit: Back to the Drawing Board

  03 April, 2012

• CO12028 | ASEAN Centrality: Year of Big Power Transitions

  20 February, 2012

• CO12006 | China’s Global Role: Need for Soft Power?

  09 January, 2012

• CO11162 | ASEAN’s World Cup Goal: Where Football Meets Diplomacy

  09 November, 2011

• CO11107 | ARF at 18: Crisis of Confidence or Oasis of Opportunity?

  19 July, 2011

Commemorative / Event Reports

• Coalition-Building and the Politics of Hegemonic Ordering in the Indo-Pacific

  31 March, 2025

• Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs - RSIS Asian Security Conference 2014

  13 March, 2014

• Roundtable Report on "Strategic Engagement in the Asia Pacific: The Future of the ADMM-Plus"

  24 July, 2013

Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award

• “A Finely Fractured Consensus: American Motivations for Rules-Based Order” in The Washington Quarterly, Volume 45, 2022 - Issue 4, 2022

Authored Books

• China’s Political Worldview and Chinese Exceptionalism: International Order and Global Leadership. Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2021

Journal Articles

• “China Seeks Out Southeast Asia: More than just Economic Dependency” in Asia Policy, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2025, p.162-164
• “Cross Straits’s Tensions and Southeast Asia’s Middle Powers: A Singaporean Perspective” in Asia Policy, Vol, 19,, No, 2, 2024
• “A Finely Fractured Consensus: American Motivations for Rules-Based Order” in The Washington Quarterly, Volume 45, 2022 - Issue 4, 2022
• “How regime legitimation influences Vietnam’s strategy toward US–China strategic rivalry” (with Phan Xuan Dung) in International Journal of Asian Studies, Vol 19, Part 2, 2022. p 1 - 20
• “The Avengers and the PLA Wolf Warrior: Popular Narratives and Major Power Competition” in East Asia, 2022
• “COVID-19 and the China Challenge: Interrogating the Domestic-International Nexus in Beijing’s Coronavirus Response” in National Security Journal, 3, 3, 2021
• “Singapore tra incudine e martello [Singapore between the hammer and the anvil]” in L'Impero Nella Tempesta [Limes, Italian Review of Geopolitics], 1, 2021
• “Chinese Vision of a Rules-Based Order: International Order with Chinese Characteristics” in Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, Indo-Pacific Perspectives, 2020, pp. 12-15
• “China’s Strategic Objectives in a Post-COVID-19 World” in PRISM, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2020, pp. 89-103
• “The Relational-Turn in International Relations Theory: Bringing Chinese Ideas into Mainstream International Relations Scholarship” in American Journal of Chinese Studies, 26, 2, 2019, pp. 91-106
• “Introduction: China’s International Relations Thinking – From Theory to Practice” in Asia Policy, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2019, pp. 2-7
• Ho, B. (2018). Power and Populism: What the Singapore Model Means for the Chinese Dream. The China Quarterly, 1-20. doi:10.1017/S030574101800053X
• Bhubhindar Singh, Sarah Teo & Benjamin Ho, "Rising Sino-Japanese competition: perspectives from South-East Asian elites", Australian Journal of International Affairs, Volume 71, Issue 1, February 2017, Pages 105-120, DOI: 10.1080/10357718.2016.1157849
  
• Benjamin Ho, "About Face—the relational dimension in Chinese IR discourse", Journal of Contemporary China (2015), 26 October 2015, DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2015.107571
• Benjamin Ho, "Learning from Lee: Lessons in Governance for the Middle Kingdom from the Little Red Dot", East Asia 32 No. 3 (September 2015): pp. 1-24, doi: 10.1007/s12140-015-9248-0
• Ho, Benjamin. “The Future of ASEAN Centrality in the Asia-Pacific Regional Architecture." Yale Journal of International Affairs, 24 June 2015. http://yalejournal.org/article_post/asean_centrality/.
• Ho, Benjamin. "Understanding Chinese Exceptionalism: China’s Rise, Its Goodness, and Greatness." Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 39, no. 3 (2014): 164-176. doi: 10.1177/0304375414567978.

Chapters in Edited Books

• “Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s Superpower Future” in Chun Han Wong, Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China's Superpower Future. Online: H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews, 2025, To be advised
• “America’s Appendage: How China Sees the European Union in the Indo-Pacific” in Yogesh Joshi, Ippita Nisheda, and Devyani Chaturvedi, The European Union as a Security Actor in the Indo-Pacific: Perceptions and Responses from the Region. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, pp. 47-59
• “Singapore: Relearning, Recovery and Resilience” in Stephen Noakes and Alexander C. Tan, Asia-Pacific Small States: Political Economies of Resilience. Boulder, Colorado, US: Lynne Rienner , 2023, p.19-35
• “Singapore’s Perspective to Major Power Competition: The Lion Between the Eagle and the Dragon” in Lee Jaehyon, Southeast Asian Perspectives of the United States and China: A SWOT Analysis. Seoul: The Asan Institute for Policy Studies, 2023, pp. 84-94
• “Training Chinese Cadres: Political Governance, Soft Power and the Chinese Solution” in Benjamin Ho, Training Chinese Cadres: Political Governance, Soft Power and the Chinese Solution. Singapore: World Scientific, 2022, pp. 435-445
• “IR Theory with Chinese Characteristics: Interpreting Global Politics through a Chinese Exceptionalism Lens” in Hua Shiping (Ed.), The Political Logic of the US-China Trade War. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2022, pp. 37-53
• “IR Theory with Chinese Characteristics: Interpreting Global Politics through a Chinese Exceptionalism Lens” in Shiping Hua, The Political Logic of the US–China Trade War. United States: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022, p37-53
• “China’s Exceptional Public Diplomacy: Dressing Up the Dragon” in C.R. Alexander (Ed.), Frontiers in Public Diplomacy: Hegemony, Morality and Power in the International Sphere. London, United Kingdom: Routledge, 2021, pp. 117-130
• “Branding China: How Beijing Seeks to Improve Its National Image by Learning from Singapore” in Stephan Ortmann and Mark Thompson (Eds.), China's 'Singapore Model' and Authoritarian Learning. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2020, pp. 72-87

Op-Eds

• “With Trump Back In Office, the world can no longer free-ride on American good-will”, Channel News Asia , 21 January 2025
• “No one wants an Asian NATO, except Japan’s new PM Ishiba” (with William A Callahan), Channel News Asia , 3 October 2024
• “Will the Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin bromance last?”, Channel News Asia , 24 May 2024
• “Taiwan’s Presidential Elections: More Continuity than Change in Taiwan’s Relations with the World” (with Joshua Park), The Prospect Foundation, 22 January 2024
• “What progress did US Secretary of State Blinken make in China’s visit?”, Channel News Asia , 19 June 2023
• “Why Xi Jinping Cannot Back Down on Coronavirus”, The National Interest, 4 June 2022
• “Why a Truce Between Moscow and Kyiv Would be the Best Outcome for Beijing”, ThinkChina, 15 March 2022
• “Rules-Based Order? Strengthening Consensus on the Rules and Principles Underpinning the International Order” (with Joel Ng, and Sarah Teo), CSCAP Regional Security Outlook 2022, 13 December 2021
• “Why China Will Not Cooperate with the West: The Pandemic Made Things Worse”, The National Interest, 25 July 2021
• “Review – Singapore Is Not An Island”, E-International Relations, 17 June 2021
• “US must confront China’s assertive, expansionist Asia strategy”, CNA, 16 March 2021
• “Rules-Based Order? Strengthening consensus on the rules and principles underpinning the international order” (with Joel Ng, and Sarah Teo), Asia Link Insights, 1 February 2021
• “Hong Kong’s National Security Law Could Make Spying More Tricky”, Todayonline, 14 July 2020
• “Hong Kong’s National Security Law: What It Means for Chinese Intelligence Capabilities”, The Politburo, 1 June 2020
• Ho, Benjamin, and Shawn Ho. “Xi sees off America's Trump card challenge.” Channel NewsAsia, 11 November 2017. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/commentary-xi-sees-off-america-trump-challenge-9394678
• Ho, Shawn, and Benjamin Ho. “After China’s 19th Party Congress – implications for the regional architecture and order.” PacNet #82, 8 November 2017. https://www.csis.org/analysis/pacnet-82-after-chinas-19th-party-congress-%E2%80%93-implications-regional-architecture-and-order.
• Singh, Bhubhindar, Sarah Teo, and Benjamin Ho. "Sino-Japanese Competition and ASEAN." Australian Outlook, 9 January 2017. http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australian_outlook/sino-japanese-competition-and-asean.
• Ho, Benjamin. "ASEAN Security Architecture: Tension between National Interests and Regional Institutions", Asia Pacific Bulletin, No. 356, 29 September 2016.
• Ho, Benjamin. “Defense diplomacy in East Asia: will ASEAN continue to be central?" PacNet #42, 27 July 2015, http://csis.org/publication/pacnet-42-defense-diplomacy-east-asia-will-asean-continue-be-central.
• Ho, Benjamin, Bhubhindar Singh, and Sarah Teo. "ASEAN Chairmanship in 2015: Perspectives and Prospects", Asia Pacific Bulletin, No. 298, 13 January 2015, http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/malaysia%E2%80%99s-asean-chairmanship-in-2015-perspectives-and-prospects.
• Kaewkamol Pitakdumrongkit and Benjamin Ho. “Beijing’s ASEAN Embrace: Making Hay While the Sun Shines.” Eurasia Review, October 10, 2013.

• Panel Speaker, “China in the Middle East”, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 8 June 2023 (Online)
• Speaker, Webinar on “Chinese Exceptionalism in a Coronavirus World: The Struggle for the Moral High Ground in Global Politics” by Young China Watchers, 23 June 2021.