About

Chris Hughes is Professor of International Politics and Japanese Studies in PAIS. He was formerly Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) (2016-2023); Chair of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2012-2016); Head of Department in PAIS (2010-2015); and Assistant Director of the ESRC Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation. Previously he was British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in PAIS and Research Associate at the Institute for Peace Science, Hiroshima UniversityLink opens in a new window (IPSHU). From 2000-2001 he was Visiting Associate Professor, and in 2006 he held the Asahi Shimbun Visiting Chair of Mass Media and Politics, both at the Faculty of Law, University of TokyoLink opens in a new window. He holds degrees from the Universities of Oxford (BA and MA), Rochester (MA), and Sheffield (MA and PhD). He is a Senior Research Associate at the Royal United Services Institute, and has been a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic StudiesLink opens in a new window (IISS), Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and Visiting Scholar at the East Asia Institute, the Free University of Berlin. In 2009-2010 he was the Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at the Department of Government, Harvard UniversityLink opens in a new window, and is currently an Associate in Research at Harvard's Reischauer Institute of Japanese StudiesLink opens in a new window. He is co-founder of the Europe-Japan Advanced Research NetworkLink opens in a new window. Research scholarships have been received from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Japan Foundation Endowment Committee, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, European Union, British Council, and British Academy.

As PVC (Education) Chris led the University to achieve 'triple gold' awards in the national TEF 2023 (Teaching Excellence Framework) exercise for Student Experience, Student Outcomes and Overall excellence. He also led Warwick to rise from 12th to 2nd in the Russell Group in the NSS (National Student Survey) between 2016 and 2023, and Warwick in 2021/22 secured The Times/Sunday Times/Times Good University Guide award for Teaching Quality Excellence in recognition of work to support students during the pandemic. During Chris's tenure as HoD in PAIS the department in REF2014 was placed joint 1st in research environment and 4th in research intensity.

Chris is co-editor of The Pacific ReviewLink opens in a new window, one of the leading journals focussing on the international politics of the Asia-Pacific.

Research interests

Currently Chris works on projects which examine:

• The future trajectory and drivers of Japan’s foreign and security
• Japan’s international relations and ‘grand strategy’
• Defence transformation and new technologies in Japan’s military policy and the Asia-Pacific
• Japanese foreign policy-making
• Japan-China relations
• US-Japan alliance ties
• Japan-North Korea relations
• Multilateral security in the Asia-Pacific
• The political economy of defence production in Japan
• Japan and Asia-Pacific regionalism
• Japanese economic statecraft
• Japanese radicalism and terrorism
• Post-Cold War traditional and non-traditional security policy
• Regionalisation and globalisation