Biography

Alexander M. Hynd is a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute, where he researches and teaches Korean politics and international relations. As a political scientist working in the sub-fields of International Relations (IR), International Political Economy (IPE) and Korean Studies (KS), his research interests include South Korean foreign policy, international hierarchies, middle power and secondary state identities and behaviour, green energy statecraft, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and Indo-Pacific affairs.

Alexander was awarded his PhD from the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) in 2024. His thesis explored middle power identity formation and hierarchy (re)construction in the Indo-Pacific, with a focus on Australia, South Korea, and Indonesia. Alexander subsequently held the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Political Economy at UNSW Sydney.

He has published on Korea foreign policy, international hierarchies, middle powers, secondary states, and nuclear non-proliferation in leading international journals such as International Studies Quarterly, International Relations, and Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space; as well as the specialist Asian studies journals Indonesian Quarterly and North Korean Review.

Alexander is currently an Academic Fellow at the Australia India Institute, a Fellow at the Melbourne Energy Institute, and a Non-resident Fellow at the University of Vienna's European Centre for North Korean Studies. He has formerly held fellowships at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia and Pacific Forum.

Current Research Projects

Becoming Middle Powers (book project)

Secondary State International Hierarchies (with Daniel Connolly)

Green Energy Statecraft (with Elizabeth Thurbon, Andrew Walter, Susan Park and Hao Tan)

A Secure and Prosperous Non-nuclear South Korea (with Joel Petersson Ivre)

PhD supervision availability: Please contact me directly through email (alexander.mhynd[at]unimelb.edu.au) if you are interested in pursuing higher degree research under my supervision