Description of research and teaching

Dr Monique Taylor is a University Lecturer in World Politics in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, with affiliations at the Lau China Institute, King’s College London and the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm, where she serves as an Associated Senior Research Fellow. She holds a doctorate in International Political Economy from the University of Queensland and has previously worked at several global top 50 universities in Singapore and Australia.

Monique specialises in global political economy and international relations, with a focus on how shifts in global power, technological change, and state-led economic strategies, such as those advanced by China, are reshaping the international political and economic order. Her current research focuses on monetary governance, authoritarianism, and the transformation of regional security architectures, especially in the Indo-Pacific. From 2023 to 2025, she is co-coordinating a €1.5 million Horizon Europe Twinning project, The EU in the Volatile Indo-Pacific Region (EUVIP), in partnership with Palacký University in the Czech Republic.

Her work has been published in a range of international scholarly journals and edited volumes. Her first book titled The Chinese State, Oil and Energy Security was published in 2014 and received positive reviews in top academic journals including The China Quarterly. Her latest book, China's Digital Authoritarianism: A Governance Perspective was published in August 2022. She is also a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs.

In addition, Monique writes for internationally recognised commentary outlets such as East Asia Forum, The Diplomat, and The Interpreter, bringing scholarly insights to wider policy and public audiences on issues of geopolitical and economic transformation.

At the University of Helsinki, Monique has taught and coordinated courses including GPC-E314 Historical Development of Economic Theories in Context, PVK-M204 Global Political Economy, GPC-E312 Explaining the Scope for Differences in Global Political Economy, GPC-E315 Governance of the World Economy and its Future, GPC-E350 and E360 MA Thesis Seminars in Global Polltical Economy, PVK-Y202 Globalization and Global Governance, PVK-M202 Foreign Policy and Security, and PVM-M302 Working Seminar (World Politics).

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Education information

After spending her formative years in Argentina, Egypt, Netherlands, UK, Malaysia and Australia, Monique went on to receive her BA/BSc (Hons 1) and MA (Hons 1) in International Relations from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She was awarded a PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Queensland, Australia.

During her studies she participated in several exchanges and international summer schools at Freie Universität Berlin, Charles University in Prague, and the University of Montpellier. Since 2019 she has been living and working in Helsinki, Finland.