Matthew Gray, Associate Professor at CAIS, is on outside studies leave (OSP) in the second half of 2015. With some extra leave from the ANU, over August 2015 to July 2016 he is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at Tokyo University,
Japan.                                                                                                                                              
While in Tokyo, Matthew is focusing on a research project on the nature of state control and state ownership in the Arab monarchies of the Gulf, seeking to both enter the debate about whether this is a form of 'new state capitalism' or not, and also to contrast it with other forms of capitalism where the state plays a very active role as an owner or regulator of the economy. Matthew chose Japan for his outside studies leave so he could focus on a range of political economies that differ markedly from the liberal form in Australia and other Western economies. Across East Asia and Southeast Asia, there are the developmental state, Brunei’s rentier system, and the various experiments with liberalisation in some other economies. His aim is not just to research and write on the Gulf, but to be able to situate that within a much deeper body of work on the role of the state across Asian economies much more broadly.
Matthew is planning to produce a book or a series of articles from his research, and is also using his time in Japan to build new networks among, and investigate collaborative opportunities with, various Gulf studies specialists at Tokyo University, elsewhere in Japan, and in the East Asia region.

Matthew Gray with Professor Eiji Nagasawa, Department of West Asian Studies, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, Tokyo University.