Expertise: Vietnam; Southeast Asia; international relations; political culture; decentralization; local governance; and conflict management.

Kim N. B. Ninh is The Asia Foundation's country representative in Vietnam. Her primary programming focus is governance, with special emphasis on decentralization, local governance, and conflict management. Her academic work includes international relations, security issues, and political culture. Dr. Ninh has experience in designing, evaluating, and managing programs at the country-specific level, as well as in multi-country efforts. Her area of expertise is East and Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam.

Dr. Ninh joined the Foundation in 1997 as the assistant director of the Governance, Law, and Civil Society Programs. She subsequently became the director of Conflict Management Programs before assuming the post of country representative for the Foundation in Vietnam in 2005.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Ninh held research and teaching appointments at Australian National University, the East-West Center, and the University of California, Berkeley. She spent two years in Vietnam for her dissertation research and was previously a research associate at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

Dr. Ninh writes regularly for various publications on politics and culture in Southeast Asia. Her publications include: Commune Councils in Cambodia: A National survey on Their Functions and Performance, with a Special Focus on Conflict Resolution, with Roger Henke (The Asia Foundation, 2005); A World Transformed: The Politics of Culture in Revolutionary Vietnam, 1945-1965 (University of Michigan Press, 2002); and "Vietnam: Struggle and Cooperation," in Asian Security Practice: Material and Ideational Influences, edited by Muthiah Alagappa (Stanford University Press, 1998).

Education: B.A. in political science and English from the University of California, Berkeley; M.A. in international relations and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.