Jonathan A. Chu is Presidential Young Professor (Assistant Professor) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He researches the impact of humanitarian and liberal democratic institutions, norms & identity, and political opinion on international affairs, especially in areas of war and conflict.

Prof. Chu’s peer-reviewed research articles appear in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Politics, World Politics, and Journal of Conflict Resolution, among other outlets. His book, Social Cues: How the Liberal Community Legitimizes Humanitarian Wars, theorizes and demonstrates a novel mechanism to explain how international organizations like NATO legitimize foreign policy (Cambridge University Press, Elements in International Relations, 2025).

This research has received grant funding and recognition from the U.S. National Science Foundation, International Studies Association (Finkelstein Paper Prize, International Organization), American Political Science Association (Weber Paper Prize, Religion and Politics), and other organizations.

Prof. Chu’s experience in research and academic leadership includes serving as the founding Director of Research of CivicPulse (non-profit), lab manager of the Stanford Survey Lab, and chair of the Master in International Affairs (MIA) programme at the LKY School. He is on the editorial board of Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Experimental Political Science. He is also currently the Leonard Davis Genocide Prevention Fellow at the Simon-Skodt Center at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2025-26).

​Prof. Chu received a B.A. in political science from UC San Diego, and a Ph.D. also in political science from Stanford University. He completed his postdoctoral work at Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania.

You can read more about his work on his website, https://www.jonathanchu.org/, and follow him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanchu88/.