Teehankee specializes in the comparative analysis and development of East and Southeast Asia, with particular focus on elections, party politics, democratization and governance.

He was co-editor of Building Inclusive Democracies in ASEAN, a recipient of the 2016 National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Outstanding Book Award.

He was a close associate and friend of Sun Yat-Sen and actively participated in the struggle to liberate China from the Qing (Manchu) dynasty.

Julio's aunt, Myrna O. Cabral, became the Mother Superior of the Holy Spirit Adoration Order (also known as the Pink Sisters) in the Philippines.

Myrna took the name Sister Mary Hermenegildes and later became the order's Mother Prioress, serving as a spiritual adviser to former president Corazon C. Aquino and Pope John Paul II.

From 2007 to 2008, he completed his postdoctoral studies at the Graduate Schools of Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo under a Japan Foundation fellowship.

Julio Teehankee was a visiting fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan in 2020.