Danny Quah
@dannyquah.bsky.social
Economist who studies Third Nation Agency in Geopolitics
It has long been a legitimate concern that multilateralism would fragment into a confusing spaghetti bowl of overlapping domains and groupings.
But what's driving these different groups?
Put pasta to work. Make multilateralism a competitive sport.
www.bruegel.org/podcast/bric...
But what's driving these different groups?
Put pasta to work. Make multilateralism a competitive sport.
www.bruegel.org/podcast/bric...
October 11, 2026 at 12:54 PM
It has long been a legitimate concern that multilateralism would fragment into a confusing spaghetti bowl of overlapping domains and groupings.
But what's driving these different groups?
Put pasta to work. Make multilateralism a competitive sport.
www.bruegel.org/podcast/bric...
But what's driving these different groups?
Put pasta to work. Make multilateralism a competitive sport.
www.bruegel.org/podcast/bric...
For its 210th anniversary my secondary school had me give a speech to alumni and students.
Calling Headmaster "Headmaster" makes everything Harry Potter-y.
Calling Headmaster "Headmaster" makes everything Harry Potter-y.
October 2, 2026 at 10:38 AM
For its 210th anniversary my secondary school had me give a speech to alumni and students.
Calling Headmaster "Headmaster" makes everything Harry Potter-y.
Calling Headmaster "Headmaster" makes everything Harry Potter-y.
Everyday now I walk into Lee Kuan Yew School buildings on the Bukit Timah Campus that look exactly like these buildings everyday I walked into for secondary school.
English colonial architecture FTW
English colonial architecture FTW
September 30, 2026 at 1:18 AM
Everyday now I walk into Lee Kuan Yew School buildings on the Bukit Timah Campus that look exactly like these buildings everyday I walked into for secondary school.
English colonial architecture FTW
English colonial architecture FTW
Build cooperation worth joining. Stop waiting for the Great Powers to show up.
32-country median 61% back tackling global problems even without the US or China.
G-minus is in the data. Great Powers optional. Cooperation essential.
www.rockefellerfoundation.org/reports/seek...
32-country median 61% back tackling global problems even without the US or China.
G-minus is in the data. Great Powers optional. Cooperation essential.
www.rockefellerfoundation.org/reports/seek...
September 23, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Build cooperation worth joining. Stop waiting for the Great Powers to show up.
32-country median 61% back tackling global problems even without the US or China.
G-minus is in the data. Great Powers optional. Cooperation essential.
www.rockefellerfoundation.org/reports/seek...
32-country median 61% back tackling global problems even without the US or China.
G-minus is in the data. Great Powers optional. Cooperation essential.
www.rockefellerfoundation.org/reports/seek...
International order makes trade possible.
But what if the reverse causality also operates?
Trade builds order—not by forcing countries to agree, but by making cooperation inadvertent and ordinary.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/trade-buil...
But what if the reverse causality also operates?
Trade builds order—not by forcing countries to agree, but by making cooperation inadvertent and ordinary.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/trade-buil...
Trade Builds Order
A trading system does not just move value across borders. It makes international cooperation ordinary.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org
September 10, 2026 at 9:54 PM
International order makes trade possible.
But what if the reverse causality also operates?
Trade builds order—not by forcing countries to agree, but by making cooperation inadvertent and ordinary.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/trade-buil...
But what if the reverse causality also operates?
Trade builds order—not by forcing countries to agree, but by making cooperation inadvertent and ordinary.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/trade-buil...
Montek Ahluwalia's inspiring professional arc, wonderfully written up by Prakash Loungani, surfaces a story that is the best of East-West economic policymaking in Asia. www.imf.org/en/publicati...
www.imf.org
September 6, 2026 at 4:37 AM
Montek Ahluwalia's inspiring professional arc, wonderfully written up by Prakash Loungani, surfaces a story that is the best of East-West economic policymaking in Asia. www.imf.org/en/publicati...
In geoeconomics when confronting shocks that are not natural events but bear bad-actor intentionality, we need to respond using unconventional mixed strategies and without provoking unnecessary hostility. Call this economic diplomacy.
September 5, 2026 at 10:58 AM
In geoeconomics when confronting shocks that are not natural events but bear bad-actor intentionality, we need to respond using unconventional mixed strategies and without provoking unnecessary hostility. Call this economic diplomacy.
In geoeconomics you can ask, How can a Great Power get further ahead. Or you can instead ask, How can the rest of us respond better to the Great Power's actions.
Quah, Danny. 2026. "A Cooperative Advantage", IMF Finance and Development (Sep) pp. 24-27
www.imf.org/en/publicati...
Quah, Danny. 2026. "A Cooperative Advantage", IMF Finance and Development (Sep) pp. 24-27
www.imf.org/en/publicati...
September 3, 2026 at 9:21 PM
In geoeconomics you can ask, How can a Great Power get further ahead. Or you can instead ask, How can the rest of us respond better to the Great Power's actions.
Quah, Danny. 2026. "A Cooperative Advantage", IMF Finance and Development (Sep) pp. 24-27
www.imf.org/en/publicati...
Quah, Danny. 2026. "A Cooperative Advantage", IMF Finance and Development (Sep) pp. 24-27
www.imf.org/en/publicati...
Christoph Trebesch provides an intricate modern version of Kindleberger's Hegemonic Benefit. Hegemonic presence benefits those allied with it, through information or other frictions
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/globalizat...
In the model, bad-actor hegemons run the mechanism in reverse.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/globalizat...
In the model, bad-actor hegemons run the mechanism in reverse.
Globalization without a US Hegemon
An unstable international order makes globalization more costly, less predictable, and harder to manage.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org
September 2, 2026 at 12:20 AM
Christoph Trebesch provides an intricate modern version of Kindleberger's Hegemonic Benefit. Hegemonic presence benefits those allied with it, through information or other frictions
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/globalizat...
In the model, bad-actor hegemons run the mechanism in reverse.
www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/globalizat...
In the model, bad-actor hegemons run the mechanism in reverse.
When the world was globalizing under rules-based multilateralism, individual states adopted straightforward strategies: be a price-taker; follow norms. Now that rules-based order is under attack, everyone proclaims instead geoeconomics.
August 22, 2026 at 10:16 AM
When the world was globalizing under rules-based multilateralism, individual states adopted straightforward strategies: be a price-taker; follow norms. Now that rules-based order is under attack, everyone proclaims instead geoeconomics.
In academic seminars, the behaviour of each generation of scholars is based on what that generation, as PhD candidates, observed of the previous generation. This is a surefire way of locking in either good codes of conduct or bad.
Be that as it may:
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/9819...
Be that as it may:
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/9819...
August 16, 2026 at 4:20 AM
In academic seminars, the behaviour of each generation of scholars is based on what that generation, as PhD candidates, observed of the previous generation. This is a surefire way of locking in either good codes of conduct or bad.
Be that as it may:
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/9819...
Be that as it may:
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/9819...
Talking International Security with my old friends Heng Chee, Tim Besley, and Jomo, and new ones made on the panel.
youtu.be/-OTHof4Q3Y8
Tue 28 July 2026. Singapore
youtu.be/-OTHof4Q3Y8
Tue 28 July 2026. Singapore
International Security in a Fractured Global Economy: The Middle East Crisis and Beyond Plenary
YouTube video by Economic Growth Centre / Singapore Economic Review
youtu.be
August 11, 2026 at 8:56 AM
Talking International Security with my old friends Heng Chee, Tim Besley, and Jomo, and new ones made on the panel.
youtu.be/-OTHof4Q3Y8
Tue 28 July 2026. Singapore
youtu.be/-OTHof4Q3Y8
Tue 28 July 2026. Singapore
In Economics research and teaching, policy evaluation and micro-intervention empower the student: "Fix poverty, do this." By contrast, more macro challenges don't provide that surface area quite as easily. Here's my attempt to change that impression.
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/98197
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/98197
August 8, 2026 at 6:10 AM
In Economics research and teaching, policy evaluation and micro-intervention empower the student: "Fix poverty, do this." By contrast, more macro challenges don't provide that surface area quite as easily. Here's my attempt to change that impression.
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/98197
canvas.nus.edu.sg/courses/98197
News can have all the same stresspoints as anywhere on Earth but hearing it in calm BBC tones while enjoying a tandoori chicken wrap is unexpectedly calming.
August 7, 2026 at 12:59 PM
News can have all the same stresspoints as anywhere on Earth but hearing it in calm BBC tones while enjoying a tandoori chicken wrap is unexpectedly calming.
Debates about international order usually ask the same question: who will lead next? The US? China? A concert of major powers?
All these entrust order to power. The task is to stop asking who will rule and instead start designing an international system in which states choose to remain.
All these entrust order to power. The task is to stop asking who will rule and instead start designing an international system in which states choose to remain.
August 1, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Debates about international order usually ask the same question: who will lead next? The US? China? A concert of major powers?
All these entrust order to power. The task is to stop asking who will rule and instead start designing an international system in which states choose to remain.
All these entrust order to power. The task is to stop asking who will rule and instead start designing an international system in which states choose to remain.
Tue 28 Jul in Singapore I, Tim Besley, and other friends at SERC 2026:
1130h-1250h Panel: International Security in a Fractured Global Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
1550h-1710h Papers: Political Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
www.DannyQuah.com/Storage/1776...
1130h-1250h Panel: International Security in a Fractured Global Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
1550h-1710h Papers: Political Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
www.DannyQuah.com/Storage/1776...
July 26, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Tue 28 Jul in Singapore I, Tim Besley, and other friends at SERC 2026:
1130h-1250h Panel: International Security in a Fractured Global Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
1550h-1710h Papers: Political Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
www.DannyQuah.com/Storage/1776...
1130h-1250h Panel: International Security in a Fractured Global Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
1550h-1710h Papers: Political Economy
editorialexpress.com/conference/s...
www.DannyQuah.com/Storage/1776...
We all conjecture how tectonic forces are changing work and markets. Here's a day-to-day, where as economists we produce papers and compete in a crowded market for ideas. One datapoint with implications for how we work, but what's your own experience?
x.com/DannyQuah/st...
x.com/DannyQuah/st...
July 25, 2026 at 8:46 AM
We all conjecture how tectonic forces are changing work and markets. Here's a day-to-day, where as economists we produce papers and compete in a crowded market for ideas. One datapoint with implications for how we work, but what's your own experience?
x.com/DannyQuah/st...
x.com/DannyQuah/st...
When across the capital cities of Asia I get to talk to academics about economics and world and regional order, it's often these guys
July 23, 2026 at 11:18 AM
When across the capital cities of Asia I get to talk to academics about economics and world and regional order, it's often these guys
While the course materials are gradually migrating to NUS Canvas, here's a brief outline of what I will be teaching in PP5182 Economic Diplomacy in an Age of Strategic Interdependence (updates at www.DannyQuah.com/Storage/PP51... ).
July 19, 2026 at 9:27 AM
While the course materials are gradually migrating to NUS Canvas, here's a brief outline of what I will be teaching in PP5182 Economic Diplomacy in an Age of Strategic Interdependence (updates at www.DannyQuah.com/Storage/PP51... ).
When rules collapse, small states should not go it alone. But neither should they meekly scurry off to look for the protection of this Great Power or that.
www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/w...
ari.nus.edu.sg/app-essay-da...
www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/w...
ari.nus.edu.sg/app-essay-da...
July 13, 2026 at 10:36 PM
When rules collapse, small states should not go it alone. But neither should they meekly scurry off to look for the protection of this Great Power or that.
www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/w...
ari.nus.edu.sg/app-essay-da...
www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/w...
ari.nus.edu.sg/app-essay-da...
Kai-Fu and I met up in Tower Block 10. So, of course we talked AI and Great Powers, small states and leadership in economic diplomacy, geopolitical shocks and AI agility: if we can't get back rules-based multilateralism our world needs to be OK being multilateral-enough in coalitions of the willing
July 11, 2026 at 2:07 AM
Kai-Fu and I met up in Tower Block 10. So, of course we talked AI and Great Powers, small states and leadership in economic diplomacy, geopolitical shocks and AI agility: if we can't get back rules-based multilateralism our world needs to be OK being multilateral-enough in coalitions of the willing
When you learn that Yeap Chor Ee started out as a street urchin in Southeast Asia but then Oei Tiong Ham valued Yeap's work ethic enough to begin their sugar trade partnership, you re-assess your life choices.
Still, grateful for food and colours that take you back to when life was simpler.
Still, grateful for food and colours that take you back to when life was simpler.
July 10, 2026 at 8:25 AM
When you learn that Yeap Chor Ee started out as a street urchin in Southeast Asia but then Oei Tiong Ham valued Yeap's work ethic enough to begin their sugar trade partnership, you re-assess your life choices.
Still, grateful for food and colours that take you back to when life was simpler.
Still, grateful for food and colours that take you back to when life was simpler.
Today's reality of intelligence, agility, and networks means we need to retire the naive linear thinking that only major powers determine systemic outcomes. Today, incentives matter more than power.
I argue here one consequence of this: Small states are our best bet for peace.
cna.asia/446gtcs
I argue here one consequence of this: Small states are our best bet for peace.
cna.asia/446gtcs
Commentary: Small states are the best bet for keeping world at peace
Economic interdependence was once expected to guarantee peace. It now fuels resentment, says economics professor Danny Quah from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
cna.asia
July 1, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Today's reality of intelligence, agility, and networks means we need to retire the naive linear thinking that only major powers determine systemic outcomes. Today, incentives matter more than power.
I argue here one consequence of this: Small states are our best bet for peace.
cna.asia/446gtcs
I argue here one consequence of this: Small states are our best bet for peace.
cna.asia/446gtcs
Here's how. First, get a G-minus group of nations. That's just any group where great-power presence is optional.
www.bfm.my/content/podc...
www.bfm.my/content/podc...
June 26, 2026 at 3:38 PM
Here's how. First, get a G-minus group of nations. That's just any group where great-power presence is optional.
www.bfm.my/content/podc...
www.bfm.my/content/podc...
When we say the international economic system is disrupted by geopolitical shocks, the emphasis should be on these shocks differing from natural-event shocks like crop failures or tsunamis. Geopolitical shocks come bearing intentionality.
substack.com/@dannyquah/n...
substack.com/@dannyquah/n...
June 22, 2026 at 7:59 PM
When we say the international economic system is disrupted by geopolitical shocks, the emphasis should be on these shocks differing from natural-event shocks like crop failures or tsunamis. Geopolitical shocks come bearing intentionality.
substack.com/@dannyquah/n...
substack.com/@dannyquah/n...