Margaret Go

Margaret Go is a doctoral researcher in Politics at the School of Social Sciences. Her project looks at the interplay of interpretations and representations of the concept of “China’s Rise” in the context of United States foreign policy. She delves into the tendency to categorise debate on China’s rise as peaceful or as a threat. Furthermore, she transcends this duality by going beyond military or economic explanations as foreign policy outcomes which in reality are more nuanced and complex than that.

Margaret tries to foster the understanding that there are interconnected interpretations in one story. Rather than imposing one dominant perspective, she seeks to explore why one interpretation dominates while another is subsumed. She acknowledges the importance of bringing in different perspectives in relation to one another in order to make sense of the patterns of conflict and cooperation of one nation-state to another. Ultimately, while exploring the relationship of theory and practice, she explores the role of theory in shaping the construction of such realities.

Prior to this, Margaret earned her MSc (Hons) in International Relations in the United Kingdom, MA in International Business Management in Singapore, and BA in International Trade and Economics in China. She worked as a speechwriter and as an analyst at the Office of the President of the Philippines. It was from such lived experience that she became interested in exploring the differing narratives that affect foreign policy outcomes. She volunteers as a decolonial tour guide around London SOHO Chinatown to show a different perspective on how history has been made and constructed, by giving a holistic understanding of the role the United Kingdom has played in shaping our worldview and in upholding stereotypical beliefs. 

Margaret is an active early career researcher in Politics, focusing on international relations and foreign policy. In her doctoral research, Margaret explores entanglements between socioeconomic, political, and cultural norms that evolve and change over time, and how one perspective has dominated while another is subsumed in the context of United States foreign policy towards China. She goes beyond a rationalist approach and traces the changing perceptions and ideas about China by prioritizing ideas and identity in the creation of national interests which in turn affect foreign policy. Working on the basis that all reality is socially constructed, with foreign policy outcomes being in the constant process of evolvement through the changing perceptions and interpretations of one nation-state in relation to another. She aims to prove that reality is centered upon the interaction of both the material and the ideational through understanding that it is a multifaceted process wherein meaning is constituted through discourses of self and othering and how such foreign policies are contested or implemented.

Her political theorizing is drawn from her lived experience as a Filipina-Chinese woman who has lived in the Philippines, China, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. She explores the entanglements and attempts to make sense of the nuances in the narratives that foreign policy actors assert towards other nation-states at different points in time.