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Vu is the author of two monographs on the politics of development, state formation, and revolution in East Asia.

His first book, Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia (Cambridge University Press, 2010), presents a systematic comparison of six Asian cases combined with an in-depth analysis of Vietnam and Indonesia based on primary sources. The case studies demonstrate that patterns of state formation had decisive impacts on subsequent developmental performance. This book received an Honorable Mention in the competition for the 2011 Bernard Schwartz Book Award of the Asia Society. Link:

His second book, Vietnam’s Communist Revolution: The Power and Limits of Ideology (Cambridge University Press, 2017), focuses on the evolving worldview of Vietnamese revolutionaries and shows the depth and resilience of their commitment to communist utopia in their foreign policy. The book challenges the conventional understanding of the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese revolution.

Vu is also the co-editor of seven books on Southeast Asian politics, the Cold War in Asia, the Republic of Vietnam (1955-1975), Vietnamese republicanism, contemporary Vietnamese politics and economy, and the Vietnamese American community.

Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (Stanford University Press, 2008; coedited with Erik Kuhonta and Dan Slater). This volume takes stock of scholarship on Southeast Asian politics and calls for dialogue between Southeast Asian studies and the political science discipline. 

Dynamics of the Cold War in Asia: Ideology, Identity, and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; coedited with Wasana Wongsurawat). This book examines the ideologies and identities of Asian actors across Cold War camps and asserts their central role in the Cold War drama in Asia.  

The Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation-Building (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020; co-edited with Sean Fear). This volume presents neglected Vietnamese perspectives on dedicated efforts to build a republican, non-communist nation in South Vietnam. The perspectives come from senior officials, soldiers, educators, journalists, writers, and artists, many of whom are women. 

Building a Republican Nation in Postcolonial Vietnam, 1920-1963 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2022; coedited with Nu-Anh Tran). This collection examines Vietnamese republican thought, movements, and politics in the first half of the 20^th century. It challenges the prevalent communism-centric and teleological narrative about the modern Vietnamese experience. 

Republican Vietnam, 1963-1975: War, Society, Diaspora (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2023; coedited with Trinh Luu). This collection shows the dynamic politics, economy, society, and culture of Republican South Vietnam as well as the impacts of war on its society. By featuring works from Vietnamese and Vietnamese diasporic studies, this volume takes the important step of bridging he two fields, laying the foundation for cross-disciplinary projects in the future.

Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2023; coedited with Linda Ho Peche and Alex-Thai Vo). This volume presents a new historiography of Vietnamese Americans and in-depth explorations into the life of this complex community, including the production of culture and preservation of memory.

The Dragon’s Underbelly: Dynamics and Dilemmas in Vietnam’s Economy and Politics (Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 2023; coedited with Nhu Truong). The empirical and in-depth analyses in this volume explain Vietnam’s transformation since the 1980s and identify major economic and political dynamics and dilemmas facing the communist regime today.

Vu has published 30 journal articles and chapters in edited volumes, some of which are downloadable from the links below: