Brian Bridges is a Professor in and Head of the Department of Political Science. His areas of research specialisation are Japanese politics and foreign policy; the international relations of the Korean peninsula; Asian Pacific security issues; Europe's relations with Asia; and the sports-politics nexus. His current projects include the two Koreas in the Olympics, Japan-Korea relations (especially concerning the North Korean nuclear crisis), and a co-edited volume on democracy and governance in Asia. His most recent book, co-edited with Richard Balme, entitled Europe-Asia Relations: Building Multilateralisms, was published by PalgraveMacmillan in May 2008.

His fields of teaching are mainly in international relations, comparative politics, and Asian studies, especially non-China studies. He was first Associate Director and then Director of the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies, 2002-2008; he particularly developed links with the two Koreas and organised an annual conference on contemporary Korea regularly from 2003.

He is keen on sports (especially cricket) and watching detective dramas and political thrillers.

Research | Top

• Japanese politics and foreign policy
  
• Politics and foreign policies of the two Koreas
  
• Sport and international relations
  
• Europe's relations with the Asia Pacific

Selected Publications (2003-2008) | Top

Books

Europe-Asia Relations: Building Multilateralisms (co-edited with Richard Balme), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2008.

Korea after the Crash: The Politics of Economic Recovery, London: Routledge, 2001, 165 pp. + xiv.

Europe, China and the Two SARs: Towards a New Era, co-edited with Miguel Santos Neves, London : Macmillan, 2000, 284 pp + xii. 

Articles and Book Chapters

"Football, Nationalism and Fan Violence in China", China Aktuell, No. 2, 2009, pp. 60-82.

"Reluctant Mediator: Hong Kong, the Two Koreas and the Tokyo Olympics", International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol. 24, No. 3, March 2007, pp. 375-391.

(co-author with Chan Che-po) “China, Japan and the Clash of Nationalisms”, Asian Perspective, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2006, pp. 127-156.

"Fun, Fervor or Fitness?: Sporting Cultures and Happiness", in Ng  Yew-Kwang and Ho Lok-sang (eds), Happiness and Public Policy: Theory, Case Studies and Implication , London: PalgraveMacmillan, 2006, pp. 221-234. 

(co-author with Ren Yue) “Prawns and Whales: the Two Koreas between China and the United States”, in Danny Paau and Herbert Yee (eds,), Return of the Dragon: US-China Relations in the 21^st Century, Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 167-187.

"Learning from Europe: Lessons for Asian Pacific Regionalism?", Asia-Europe Journal, No. 2, 2004, pp. 387-397.

"Business as Usual? The European Union and Hong Kong after the Handover", in Wong Yiu-chung (ed.), 'One Country, Two Systems' in Crisis: Hong Kong's Transformation since the Handover, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2004, pp. 167-187.

"Japan and Hong Kong: Commerce, Culture ad Contention", China Quarterly, No. 176, December 2003, pp. 1052-1067.

"Managing Another North Korean Crisis: South Korean, Japanese and U.S. Approaches", (co-author with Kim Hosup and Tadokoro Masayuki), Asian Perspective, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2003, pp. 53-83.

Teaching Subjects | Top