Benny Teh

Benny Teh

Associate Professor, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Dr Benny Teh Cheng Guan is an associate professor at the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). He is currently a Japan Foundation Fellow at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan. His research interests include Indo-Pacific regionalism, human security, ASEAN community building, the construction of security communities, and the politics of free trade agreements.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) is escorted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (right) to the Cenotaph for the Victims of the Atomic Bomb at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, after Zelenskiy was invited to the Group of Seven nations' summit in Hiroshima, Japan, 21 May 2023. (Eugene Hoshiko//Reuters)
Politics

Japanese PM Kishida's proactive diplomacy amid global insecurity

By Benny Teh 01 Jun 2023
Malaysian academic Benny Teh assesses that the recent G7 summit in Hiroshima was a show of Japan’s more assertive role in international diplomacy in the face of greater threat perceptions, not least from China. In inviting a host of other countries that could further its ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ agenda, it sought to open dialogue that could help build a bulwark against rising alternative groupings courting the global south.
People wearing protective masks cross a street outside a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 6 September 2021. (Lim Huey Teng/Reuters)
Economy

Malaysia resurfacing the Asian Monetary Fund: Will the idea take off this time?

By Benny Teh , By Law Chee Hong 09 May 2023
An Asian Monetary Fund was first mooted by Japan during the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, but did not quite take off then. Now, with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim resurfacing the proposal during his recent trip to China, is the prospect of an AMF more likely today than it was 26 years ago?