Yeonju Jung PhD

Yeonju Jung is a Postdoctoral Researcher in International Relations at Stockholm University. She is also an Associate Fellow in the Asia Programme at the Swedish Institute of Foreign Affairs.

Dr Yeonju Jung's project "Rethinking Liberal Order Decline: A Micro-Analytic Framework of Hegemonic Retreat" examines a core assumption in debates on global order decline: U.S. retreat leaves governance vacuums that China inevitably fills, displacing liberal norms. Challenging this “vacuum logic,” the project develops a novel analytical framework that disaggregates retreat into three stages—vacuums, substitution, and norm outcomes—and compares competing explanations.

Using a mixed-methods design that combines quantitative analysis, case studies, and text analysis, the project traces these dynamics across development finance, diplomacy, and international institutions from 2000 to 2023. Empirically grounded in contemporary cases such as recent USAID closures, the research is conducted sequentially at William & Mary, National Taiwan University, and Stockholm University. The project reframes liberal order decline as conditional and uneven, to aim to offer both theoretical advances and practical insights for navigating U.S.–China competition in global governance.

Previously, she has worked for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology of Development at SOAS, University of London, and PhD in International Relations at Stockholm University.