Shing-hon Lam

Shing-hon Lam

PhD candidate at UCLA

Posts by Collection

portfolio

publications

Contesting Roles: Rising Powers as “Net Providers of Security”

Published in Journal of Global Security Studies, 2020

With Courtney Fung. What is a “net provider of security,” or a “global security provider”? How are such roles adopted by rising powers? We define a net provider of security as a social role, when an actor provides novel, niche, and functionally differentiated security duties, supporting burden-sharing in providing public goods. The nascent literature on these US-vectored roles characterizes role adoption as largely successful. However, rising powers contest the US-designated net provider of security role. Rising powers have stated or latent foreign policy goals to shape international order in their strategic vision, reflecting ideational capacity to reconceptualize their role in global politics, or a material capacity to reposition their rank. Building upon insights from role theory, we illustrate that rising powers exploit temporal and rhetorical ambiguities and leverage their material and ideational resources to execute role differentiation through three micro-processes of role resistance—role acknowledgment, role task rejection, and role task substitution—used to promote an idiosyncratic role, casting the US-vectored role as non-functional, non-representational, and untenable. We examine crucial cases of rising powers, India and China, to develop our theoretical contribution. Our findings speak to the literatures on the logic of identity management, rhetoric in international politics, the taxonomy of contemporary ad hoc security arrangements, and the epistemological project of globalizing international relations.

Recommended citation: Fung, Courtney J., and Shing-hon Lam. 2021. "Contesting roles: Rising powers as “net providers of security”." Journal of Global Security Studies 6(3): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogaa034

Staffing the United Nations: China’s Motivations and Prospects

Published in International Affairs, 2021

With Courtney Fung. A developing public commentary views China as exerting influence in international organizations to legitimize and disseminate PRC foreign policy values and interests. This article examines an understudied source identified by PRC elites to promote influence in the United Nations system: dispatching PRC nationals as international civil servants, specifically in a targeted pursuit of executive leadership positions. Using decades of UN staffing data, we find that apart from Russia, China holds the fewest executive leadership posts among the aspiring and permanent members of the UN Security Council. Moreover, China is yet to lead an agency addressing international security matters. US and European staff contributions are significantly higher at all staffing levels of the international civil service. Still, the data shows that China made modest, targeted gains in most specialized UN agencies, and agencies headed by PRC nationals show faster increases in PRC staff members, though all base numbers were low. We draw from Chinese-language sources to discuss issues facing China in increasing its international civil service numbers, affecting the country’s ability to shape global governance.

Recommended citation: Fung, Courtney J., and Shing-hon Lam. 2021. "Staffing the United Nations: China’s motivations and prospects." International Affairs 97(4): 1143–1163. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiab071

Mixed report card: China’s influence at the United Nations

Published in The Lowy Institute, 2022

With Courtney Fung. A 48-page Lowy Institute report contextualising China’s growing presence at the United Nations across four metrics: funding for UN departments and programs; executive-level staffing; voting in the General Assembly and Security Council; and the use of PRC-specific discourse in UN documentation. We find that China remains selective in its approach to UN participation and that its efforts do not necessarily translate into successful influence.

Recommended citation: Fung, Courtney J., and Shing-hon Lam. 2022. "Mixed report card: China’s influence at the United Nations." The Lowy Institute, December.

Personnel power shift? Unpacking China’s attempts to enter the UN civil service

Published in Global Policy, 2024

With Courtney Fung. The PRC views dispatching Chinese talent to international organisations as a key global-governance contribution and a means to shape these institutions from within. Using UN staffing data alongside Chinese-language academic, policy, and media sources, we examine how China prepares to compete for international civil-service posts, finding that its efforts emphasise preparing patriots who can bring “Chinese wisdom” into the UN, even as overall staffing gains remain in development.

Recommended citation: Lam, Shing-hon, and Courtney J. Fung. 2024. "Personnel power shift? Unpacking China’s attempts to enter the UN civil service." Global Policy 15(S2): 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13371

Mapping China’s influence at the United Nations

Published in The Review of International Organizations, 2024

With Courtney Fung. How do emerging powers secure international leadership posts, and how do these international civil-service positions contribute to influence in multilateral institutions? Focusing on China in the UN system, we find that China forms coalitions with weaker states to control leadership appointments—states with higher UN General Assembly voting affinity with China secure greater increases in UN leadership positions—and that China-friendly leadership correlates with the frequency of PRC-specific and PRC-reinterpreted terms across 54 UN departments’ documentation.

Recommended citation: Lam, Shing-hon, and Courtney J. Fung. 2025. "Mapping China’s influence at the United Nations." The Review of International Organizations 20(4): 1151–1180.

talks

teaching

Teaching experience 1

Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.

Teaching experience 2

Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.