Minran Liu

Dr Minran Liu serves as a Lecturer in International & Political Studies at the School of Humanities & Social Sciences (HASS) at UNSW Canberra, located at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA). He obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney, where he previously held a position as Lecturer in International Relations within the Discipline of Government and International Relations. There, he also acted as the Degree Director for the Master of International Security program. Minran Liu's academic interests center on Chinese foreign and security policy, the interaction between domestic politics and international relations, security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region, and bilateral relations between Australia and China. His work examines how state identities influence foreign policy trajectories, particularly in East Asia.

Throughout his career, Liu has made notable contributions to scholarship in international relations. Key publications include his 2024 article, 'Identity-policy discrepancy: crisis perception, third-order change and the shifting foreign policy trajectories of China and Japan toward Northeast Asia,' published in Contemporary Politics (volume 30, pp. 678-703). In 2022, he translated Charles C. Ragin's seminal work, The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies, into Chinese, published by Shanghai People’s Publishing House. He co-authored the chapter 'Confidence Building, Early Warning and Fact Finding in Sino-ROK Disputes: Can Preventive Diplomacy Work in a Bilateral Context?' in the 2021 edited volume Achieving Sustaining Peace through Preventive Diplomacy (World Scientific Publishing). Forthcoming works feature his monograph State Identity Politics and the Making of East Asia: Perspectives from China and Japan (Routledge, 2026) and the article 'Imagined Weakness: The Peaceful Riser Identity and Beijing’s Policy Overcorrection in the South China Sea' (International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 2025). Liu is actively engaged in the academic community as a Member-at-Large on the Executive Committee of the International Studies Association (ISA) Asia-Pacific and as an Adjunct Fellow at the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology Sydney. He frequently contributes expert commentary on international affairs to prominent media outlets such as ABC, SBS, Sky News, CNA, The Straits Times, China Daily, and Het Financieele Dagblad.

Professional Email: minran.liu@unsw.edu.au