Biography
Dr Walter Lee specialises in global politics and international law, in particular China's epistemological and moral roles played in global governance. He has a broad interest in ways of thinking, knowledge production, intellectual history, life philosophy, and multidisciplinary research that examines world politics and law from the Humanities perspectives. An exemplary outcome is his latest research monograph Principles and Laws in World Politics: Classical Chinese Perspectives on Global Conflict (Singapore; Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific Publishing, 2022, 524 pages).
Dr Lee studied and worked in Hong Kong before obtaining a MA in International Relations from the University of Warwick. He subsequently completed his PhD in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland with a thesis on non-interventionism and classical Chinese conceptions of the jus ad bellum. Before joining the HKMU (at the time, OUHK), Dr Lee was Postdoctoral Teaching Associate in Global China Studies and Social Sciences programmes in School of Humanities and Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He also taught at the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand.
In research, Dr Lee worked as Senior Research Fellow in China and public international law at the University of Hong Kong (HKU)'s Faculty of Law, and Research Assistant for China in Comparative Perspective Network (CCPN) at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He held Visiting Scholar position at Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing, as well as Visiting Fellow position at Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL), HKU. Dr Lee was trained earlier in the Humanities. He graduated with a First Class Honours degree, majoring in English and Comparative Literature. His enduring passion for making the world a better place was much inspired and driven by an internship experience with the United Nations General Assembly at New York Headquarters.
As a continuing project, he works on basic research in common principles and laws in world politics and international legal thought. Currently, he is studying: the classical and the contemporary, virtue politics, natural law, non/post-Western IR, critical and historical IR, comparative worldview and cosmology in civilisations, narrative building and discourse power. He is also interested in photography, aesthetics, and performing arts, in particular conceptualisation and expression in the world of dance.
Research Directions and Scholarly Interests:
Ways of thinking, knowledge production, and intellectual history
Global governance, legal tradition, and international legal thought
Non/post-Western international relations
Chinese international relations
Multidisciplinary research, non/post-positivism, and hermeneutics
Courses:
GCST 2001AEF Diplomacy and Public International Law
GCST 3002AEF International Organisations and Global Governance
GCST A316F/GCST 4001AEF China and Global Governance
GCST 4002AEF Non/Post-Western International Relations
GCST 4005AEF Special Topics in Global and China Studies
GEN 1015AEF Understanding World Politics through Photojournalism
Academic & Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Social Sciences, HKMU (2017-present)
Founding Programme & Stream Leader of Global and China Studies, HKMU (2018-present)
Visiting Speaker, Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Helsinki (2016)
Senior Research Fellow, Department of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong (2015-16)
Visiting Fellow, Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL), Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong (2013, 2015)
Visiting Scholar, Division of International Politics Theory, Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing (2013)
Research Assistant, Researchers Fostering Laboratory, China in Comparative Perspective Network Global (formerly China in Comparative Perspective Network, CCPN), London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (2009-10)
Intern, General Assembly Affairs Branch, Department of General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM), United Nations Secretariat, New York (2008)
Selected Publications
Books
Book Chapters
Journal Articles
Further Information
Modified Date: 26 May, 2025
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