Speaker: Benjamin Ho, Assistant Professor and Coordinator, China Programme; S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore
Moderator: Mark Wu, Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University

In recent years, questions have been posed regarding the durability of the current rules-based (liberal) international order and what this means for the practice of international relations. In this novel study, Benjamin Ho, an assistant professor from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) argues of the importance of political myths shaping preferences of international order in Northeast Asia, focusing on three key states, namely China, Japan and South Korea. He shares that existing political myths provide stronger narrative justification compared to national interests (defined purely materially) for these countries to adopt or reject certain aspects of the international order. States will view the international order as good or just if the characteristics of such an order support and allow for preservation for domestic myths. On the other hand, states will view the international order unfavourably if the characteristics of this order run up or challenge their ability to preserve domestic myths. Notwithstanding the various global conflicts the world is witnessing today, Ho contends that states continue to desire order – as opposed to disorder – in global affairs and the enduring role of mythos in structuring political relations with one another

Dr. Benjamin Ho is Assistant Professor and Coordinator 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) and is working on his second book project on Political Myths and International Order in Northeast Asia (with a focus on China, Japan and South Korea). He has also published in journals such as China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, The Washington Quarterly, The National Interest, Asia Policy, and the Australian Journal of International Affairs. He was a Fulbright scholar at the Elliot School of International Affairs (George Washington University between 2021-2022), a Taiwan MOFA Fellow at the Institute of Political Science Academia Sinica (Taiwan) in 2022 and a Republic of Korea-ASEAN Scholar at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in 2025.

Co-sponsored by the Program on US-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University