Dr. Richard R. Vuylsteke
Professor Asia Pacific center for security studies
PHONE. 808-429-6997
ADDRESS.
2058 Maluhia Road
Honolulu, Hawaii 96815
Dr. Richard R. Vuylsteke joined the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI-APCSS) as a Professor on the faculty in January 2022. Previously he served five years as President of the East-West Center. Prior to the EWC, he spent three decades in Asia where he served nine years as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, and nine years as president of the American Chamber in Taipei.
In Taipei he also served as editor-in-chief of the Taiwan Review, and as Area Studies Coordinator for the US Department of State Foreign Service Institute Chinese Language and Areas Studies School (CLASS). Earlier in his career, he was a research fellow in East Asian Legal Studies at Harvard Law School as well as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.
Originally from Illinois, Dr. Vuylsteke was an East-West Center grantee in the 1970s while he earned MA and PhD degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, specializing in Western and Chinese political philosophy. While still a graduate student he joined the Center's staff as a research assistant to the director of the Culture Learning Institute, and later worked as a special assistant to the EWC president with a focus on Pacific community topics. In addition, on the faculties at the University of Hawaii and Chaminade University, he taught courses in Asian history and social, political, and legal philosophy. He also was Assistant Director at the Pacific Forum in Honolulu.
Prior to graduate school, he enlisted in the US Army. After completing Infantry School, he was commissioned in Intelligence and stationed in Hawaiʻi at the US Army Pacific Command (USARPAC) as Chief of the China Desk and later seconded to CINCPAC (now INDOPACOM) as Chief of the Soviet Far East Desk.