Richard Javad Heydarian is an Asia-based academic, author, and policy adviser. He is currently an Associate Professor in geopolitics at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, a special lecturer at San Beda University, and has delivered lectures at the world’s leading universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Beijing universities. He was previously a Visiting Fellow at National Chengchi University (Taiwan), and an Assistant Professor in Political Science at De La Salle University. As a columnist, he has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Foreign Affairs, and is a regular contributor to Aljazeera English, Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post, and The Straits Times. He has written extensively on Philippine politics, populism, and Asian geopolitical affairs. His latest books are The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt against Elite Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and The Indo-Pacific: Trump, China, and the New Global Struggle for Mastery (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). His forthcoming book is China’s New Empire (Melbourne University Press, 2022).