Associate Professor Michael Barr teaches International Relations at Flinders University and is Editor-in-Chief of Asian Studies Review.

Since being awarded his PhD from the University of Queensland in 1998 he has written and commented extensively on Singapore politics and history.

His books include Lee Kuan Yew: The Beliefs behind the Man, Constructing Singapore: Elitism, Ethnicity and the Nation-Building Project (with Zlatko Skrbis), and Paths Not Taken: Political Pluralism in Post-War Singapore (co-edited with Carl A. Trocki).

His most recent book is The Ruling Elite of Singapore: Networks of Power and Influence and he is currently writing a new history of Singapore.

He also pursues interests in the connections between religion and politics and has published on the political roles of Catholicism, Islam and Confucianism in Asia.