People

Professor Chris Alden is Director of LSE IDEAS.

Dr Rohan Mukherjee is Deputy Director of LSE IDEAS

Dr Emilia Knight is the Centre Manager of LSE IDEAS.
Email: e.knight@lse.ac.uk

Stuart Austin is Project Coordinator of the Central and South East Europe Programme (CSEEP)
Email: s.j.austin@lse.ac.uk

Indira Endaya is the Publications Designer at LSE IDEAS.
Email: i.endaya@lse.ac.uk

Mireia Franch is the Finance Manager for LSE IDEAS.
Email: m.franch@lse.ac.uk

Oliver Gill is Programmes Head at LSE IDEAS
Email: o.gill@lse.ac.uk

Marta Kozielska manages the LSE IDEAS Alumni Network and the Women in Diplomacy Project.
Email: m.m.kozielska@lse.ac.uk

Clare Stenning is the Communications Officer at LSE IDEAS.
Email: c.stenning@lse.ac.uk

Dave Sutton is the Events Manager at LSE IDEAS.
Email: d.c.sutton@lse.ac.uk

Matilde Marini is Programmes Coordinator at LSE IDEAS
Email: m.marini1@lse.ac.uk

Dr Giulia Grillo is Lecturer at LSE IDEAS and PA to the Director of LSE IDEAS.

She researches topics on peace and conflict, radicalisation processes, and political violence. She is particularly interested in better understanding the origins of violence and conflict to find better ways to address them and applies an interdisciplinary approach to the study of these topics. Her PhD thesis is titled ‘Psychological Perspectives on Radicalisation Processes. Stories from the Italian Far Left’ and combines IR and conflict studies with psychology. She is also member of the Conflict Analysis Research Centre (CARC) of the University of Kent, UK. 

Email: g.grillo@lse.ac.uk

Dr Aaron McKeil is a Academic Director, Programme Convenor and Course Tutor on the Executive MSc International Strategy and Diplomacy programme at LSE IDEAS.
Email: a.mckeil@lse.ac.uk

Saniya Kulkarni is the Programme Manager for the Executive MSc in International Strategy and Diplomacy Programme.

Hugh Sandeman is a Professor in Practice and Head of Practitioners for the Executive MSc in International Strategy and Diplomacy Programme.

Radu Albu Comănescu is co-ordinator of the Central and South-East Europe Programme Desk at Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Stuart Austin is Programme Manager of the Central and South-East Europe Programme.

Lukas Fiala is Head of the China Foresight Project.
Email: l.d.fiala@lse.ac.uk

Dr.Innocent Batsani-Ncube is Project Associate of the China Foresight Project.

Professor Mary Kaldor is the Executive Director of the Conflict and Civicness Research Group.

Alice Bryant is the Programme Manager for the Conflict and Civicness Research Group.

Dr Luke Cooper is the Director of PeaceRep Ukraine Programme.

Dr Matthew Sterling Benson is the Sudans Research Director at the Conflict and Civicness Research Group 

Dr Rim Turkmani is Syria Research Director at the Conflict and Civicness Research Group.

Dr Nisar Majid is Somalia Research Director at the Conflict and Civicness Research Group.

Khalif Abdirahman is Somalia Research Director at the Conflict and Civicness Research Group.

Dr Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic is Senior Research Fellow at the Conflict and Civicness Research Group

Kenddrick Chan is the Head of the Digital IR Project, and Research Associate at LSE IDEAS.

Professor Chris Alden is advisor to the Digital IR Project. He is Director of LSE IDEAS and Professor of International Relations at the LSE.

Dr. Marta Soprana is a Digital IR Project Associate

Stephen Paduano is Research Director of the LSE Global Economic Governance Commission.

Dr Rohan Mukherjee is Executive Director of the LSE Global Economic Governance Commission.

Professor Chris Alden is Co-Director of the Global South Unit and Professor in International Relations at LSE.

Professor Alvaro Mendez is Co-Director of the Global South Unit and Senior Research Fellow at LSE.

Peter Jones is Project Head of Global Strategies

Seeta Persaud is Managing Editor of the Journal Nations and Nationalism.

Dr Luc-André Brunet is Co-Director of the Peace and Security Project, Acting Director of the Cold War Studies Project and a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS.
Email: l.brunet@lse.ac.uk

Dr Eirini Karamouzi is Co-Director of the Peace and Security Project and a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS.

Dr Dimitrios Stroikos is Head of LSE IDEAS Space Policy. He is also Editor-In-Chief of Space Policy: An International Journal. He is an LSE Fellow at the Department of International Relations.

Professor Alvaro Mendez is Project Coordinator and a Senior Researcher at the Sustainable Banking Initiative.

Francisco Javier Forcadell is Senior Researcher at the Sustainable Banking Initiative.

Dr Mary Martin is Director of the UN Business and Human Security Initiative.

Dr Vesna Bojicic- Dzelilovic is co-director of UN Business and Human Security Initiative.

Karen Smith is Head of the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Marta Kozielska manages the LSE IDEAS Alumni Network and the Women in Diplomacy Project.

Professor Alvaro Mendez is the Co-Director of the Global South Unit, based at LSE IDEAS and the Department of International Relations at LSE. He is an expert in foreign policy analysis, international development, US foreign policy, Chinese foreign policy and the foreign policy of Latin American states.

Dr Leon Hartwell is senior associate at LSE IDEAS and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC. His research interests include conflict resolution, genocide, transitional justice, diplomacy, democracy, and the Western Balkans. Previously, Hartwell was the 2022 Sotirov Fellow at LSE IDEAS and CEPA’s Acting Director of the Transatlantic Leadership Program and a Title VIII Fellow.

Mats Berdal is Professor of Security and Development in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where he is also the Programme Director for the MA in Conflict, Security and Development and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Programme (CSDRG). He joined Department of War Studies, King’s College London in 2003, having previously been Director of Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London from 2000 to 2003.

Bill Bikales is an economist whose work focuses on economic and social development in China and Mongolia, in each of which he has served at senior advisory positions, including six years as economic advisor to the Mongolian Prime Minister’s Office and a recent stint as the Lead Economist in the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in China, in addition to earlier senior posts in China for UNICEF and UNDP.  He has also held long-term positions in Ukraine and the Philippines, were he served for three years as Southeast Asia Principal Economist at the Asian Development Bank.  He is currently working on a multisectoral assessment of Post-Communist Mongolia’s transition to a market economy and continuing his research into fresh perspectives on China’s poverty alleviation achievements and challenges.

Dr Andrew Bowen is a Senior Advisor to Rothschild & Co and a Senior Counsellor to Palantir Technologies. Andrew has advised and partnered with a number of family offices, funds, institutions, and impactful companies in the U.S. and in EMEA.

Andrew held fellowships at the American Enterprise Institute, the Wilson Center, the Center for National Interest in Washington D.C. and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from Rice University.

Chris Brown is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. An LSE graduate (BSc (Econ) International Relations, 1968), he returned to the Department of International Relations at the School as Professor in 1998 and ‘retired’ in 2014. He held the Chair of Politics at Southampton University from 1994 -98, and before that was a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on international political theory.

Jonathan Fenby has written eighteen books, eight of them on China, most recently 'Will China Dominate the 21st Century?'. He is a founding partner and China Director of the emerging markets research service, Trusted Sources serving global financial institutions and companies.

Courtney Fung is Associate Professor in the Department of Security Studies & Criminology at Macquarie University and concurrently Non-Resident Fellow at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University; at Asia Society Australia, and at the Lowy Institute. She was most recently a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University.  Her research studies how rising powers address the norms and provisions for global governance and international security, with a primary focus on China.

Gidon Gautel is currently an Analyst in the space industry. Previously, he was the Project Coordinator of China Foresight and Project Manager of the Economic Diplomacy Commission at LSE IDEAS. Gidon holds a BSc in Government and Economics with first class honours from LSE, and an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management with distinction from Imperial College Business School. His interests include the interplay between US-China relations and technological development, with a particular focus on space.

Georgios Giannakopoulos is a lecturer in Modern History at City, University of London. He is a member of the executive committees of the Greek Politics Specialist Group and the Society of Modern Greek Studies (UK). His research focuses on the international history and politics of Southeastern Europe since the late nineteenth century. He is currently finishing a book on British internationalism and national questions in Southeastern Europe and is working on a new project on the history of interventions in Modern Greece.

Julia Himmrich is an expert on European foreign and security policy, particularly in regards to EU post-conflict policy in the Western Balkans and the foreign policy dimension of migration. She has held research positions in think tanks, including as Dahrendorf Post-Doctoral Fellow at LSE IDEAS, and taught at LSE and King’s College London. She holds a PhD from the LSE International Relations Department. Her areas of expertise are: politics of independence and secession, the Western Balkans (Kosovo-Serbia conflict), German foreign policy, EU foreign and defence policy, and international migration policy.

Valur Ingimundarson is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Iceland. His current research focuses on the return of geopolitics in the North and the resurgence of nationalism and populism in Europe.

David Landon Cole is the Coordinator of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN). He is currently completing a PhD in Politics at the University of York, looking at opposition to the radical right. Prior to returning to university, he had a career in defence and aerospace and was previously Vice-President of the Atlantic Treaty Association.

George Magnus is Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. George was the Chief Economist, and then Senior Economic Adviser at UBS Investment Bank from 1995-2016. He had previously worked as the Chief Economist at SG Warburg (1987-1995), and before that at Laurie Milbank/Chase Securities, Bank of America and Lloyds Bank. George’s book Red Flags: why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy was published in 2018 by Yale University Press.

Slobodan G. Markovich is a Full Professor and Head of the Centre for British Studies at the University of Belgrade. His current research focuses on the application of the theory of the unconscious to the analysis of contemporary political relations and on writing on the history of European pessimism. He obtained his BA in History at the University of Belgrade, MPhil in Historical Studies at the University of Cambridge, and PhD in Political Anthropology at the University of Belgrade.

David A. Merkel is the CEO of Summit International Advisors, LLC  and an Adjunct Professor at the College of Charleston in Great Power Competition. He served in  senior positions on the National Security Council, the Departments  of State, and Treasury,as well as the US Securities and Exchange Commission.  He was Leadership Staff for the US House of Representatives and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was   Associate Fellow for Geo-economics and Strategy.  With The  International Institute for Strategic Studies,  and a non-resident Senior Fellow with Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Atlantic Council.David Merkel has lived and worked in North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.              

Stephen Paduano is the Executive Director of the LSE Economic Diplomacy Commission and an associate at LSE IDEAS. He received a B.A. with Honours from Stanford University and an MSc with Distinction from the London School of Economics, where he was awarded the Fred Halliday Prize. He is currently pursuing a PhD at LSE on U.S. and Chinese foreign and economic policy in sub-Saharan Africa, for which he was also awarded the Michael Leifer Scholarship. He has written about these issues—British and African current events—for The Atlantic, The Economist, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, and NPR, and he has done TV and radio appearances for CNN, Sky News, and others.

Stefano Ruzza is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Turin. He is also a co-founder of T.wai - Torino World Affairs Institute, with responsibility over the “Violence and Security” research program. His research interests focus on conflict transformation (with a focus on Myanmar and Uganda), non-state armed actors in international relations and on private military and security companies. He lectures regularly in advanced educational programs of the Italian Army, is responsible for the Italian translation of the world-renown SIPRI Yearbook Summary, and directs the summer school 'Engaging Conflict'.

Amaia Sánchez-Cacicedo is currently Academic Co-ordinator at the Global Policy Center (GPC) at IE University in Madrid. She is also Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Asia Program, at Institut Montaigne in Paris. Prior to this, she was Non-Resident Associate Analyst for South Asia at the EUISS. She contributes to the analysis of South Asian foreign policy with an emphasis on geo-economic and security developments across the Indian Ocean. She further monitors EU relations with emerging powers. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and completed her PhD at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Zhand Shakibi is a Visiting Professor in Russian Studies at the University of Tehran. His research focuses on modern Iranian history. He was previously at LSE as a Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the Department of Government.

Vuk Vuksanovic is a senior researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy and since April 2020 an associate of LSE IDEAS. He received his PhD in international relations at the LSE. He has published widely on modern foreign and security policy issues, primarily on the great power politics in the Balkans and wider Eurasia, for media and policy outlets in the UK, the US and the EU. He is on Twitter @v_vuksanovic.

Michael John Williams is Director of the International Relations Programme at New York University and Editor-in-Chief of the journal International Politics. His research at IDEAS focuses on the strategic role of Britain post-Brexit and the relationship between the UK and the US. He was previously Head of the Transatlantic Security Program at RUSI and Reader in International Relations at the University of London. Educated at the universities of Delaware, Hamburg, Bayreuth, Bath, Berlin, and Moscow, he earned his doctorate at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Dr Yu Jie (Cherry) is Senior Research Fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. She speaks and writes frequently at major media outlets such as BBC and Financial Times, and regularly briefs senior policy practitioners from the G7 member governments, the UK Cabinet Office and the Silk Road Fund in Beijing, as well as major FTSE 100 corporates. Yu Jie has testified at the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and International Trade Committee. She was previously Head of China Foresight at LSE IDEAS. Prior to LSE, she was a management consultant, specializing in Chinese state-owned enterprises investments in Europe and Chinese market entry strategies for European conglomerates at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Dr Yu has been recognized as a 'Leading Woman' of the London School of Economics for her contribution in teaching and engaging the debates on China’s foreign affairs.

Vlad Zigarov is Programme Associate for the Central and South-East Europe Programme. He holds an MSc in International History from LSE and an MA from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at UCL. He previously studied Philosophy, History and International Affairs at the University of Bucharest and worked in a number of state and private organisations in Romania and the UK.

Mariia Zolkina, Ukrainian Researcher and Public Policy Analyst, Head of Regional Security and Conflict Studies at one of most authoritative Ukrainian think tanks, the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF). In 2022 – 2024 she  worked for the London School of Economics and Political Science as DINAM Researcher. In this capacity Mariia has launched the DINAM Ukraine Discussion Series at International Relations Department, LSE.  She is also a Senior Member of the University Consortium,  inter-regional network of leading global univerities, established  under St Antony’s College, University of Oxford in 2015. Mariia has been  working in the fields of regional security, reintegration policies in occupied territories and wartime diplomacy. In 2022 she was  invited to Doha, Qatar by  Al Jazeera Arabic TV Channel as a special external expert on  Russian aggression to cover live news production.

She also served as an external consultant to the Ministry for informational policy of Ukraine (testing Strategy of informational reintegration of Donbas), and the Governmental Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.

Since 2014 she has been producing expertise on the political component of Russo-Ukrainian war, especially regarding the Donbas region, and has been analysing  socio-political implications of the conflict both at national and international levels. Mariia has rich experience in designing and conducting public opinion polls, including in frontline areas. As a researcher aiming at impactful public policy analysis, Mariia regularly  advises and briefs British, Ukrainian and other  to UK  and governments’ official  and international organizations on Russo-Ukrainian war. 

Anne Applebaum held the Philippe Roman Chair for the 2012/13 academic year. She is a Washington Post columnist and a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian. She is also Professor of Practice at LSE's Institute of Global Affairs where she runs Arena, a program on disinformation and 21st century propaganda.

Michael Burleigh held the Engelsberg Chair for 2019/20. He is a leading historian who focuses primarily on Nazi Germany. He is the author of The Third Reich: a new history, which won the 2001 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction; Moral Combat, Blood and Rage; and Earthly Powers. His most recent book is The Best of Times, the Worst of Times. He has also won a British Film Institute Award for Archival Achievement and a New York Film and Television Festival Award Bronze Medal.

Barry Buzan is a Professor Emeritus at the Department for International Relations at LSE. Professor Buzan is also honorary professor at Copenhagen and Jilin Universities.

Matthew Connelly was the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2014-2015 academic year. He is a Professor in the Department of History at Columbia University. He works in international and global history.

Michael Cox is Founding Director of LSE IDEAS. He was appointed to a Chair at the LSE in 2002. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre at LSE in 2004 with Arne Westad, and later they were both Founding Directors of LSE IDEAS in 2008. Professor Cox has lectured to universities world-wide as well as to several government bodies and many private companies. He is currently visiting professor at the Catholic University in Milan. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over 30 books. His most recent work includes a centennial edition of J. M. Keynes’s, ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Palgrave, 2019), a collection of his own essays ‘Agonies of Empire: American Power from Clinton to Biden (Bristol University Press, 2022), ‘Afghanistan: Long War to Forgotten Peace (LSE Press, 2022) and Ukraine: Russia’s War and the Future of Global Order ( LSE Press, 2023).

Niall Ferguson was the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2010-2011 academic year. Professor Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Ramachandra Guha held the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2011-2012 academic year. Dr Guha is a historian and biographer and has taught at the universities of Yale and Stanford.

Chen Jian held the Philippe Roman Chair during the 2008-09 academic year. Professor Jian is the Hu Shih Professor of History and China-US Relations emeritus at Cornell University. His specialties include modern Chinese history, history of Chinese-American relations, and Cold War international history.

Paul Kennedy was the inaugural holder of the Philippe Roman Chair during the 2007-08 academic year. Professor Kennedy is one of the world's most well-known international historians, whose books include The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers  (1987) and Preparing for the Twenty-First Century (1993).

Gilles Kepel held the Philippe Roman Chair during the 2009-10 academic year. Professor Kepel is best known for his books on the Middle East and North Africa, and for his work on Islamism, including Islamism in Europe.

Dominic Lieven is a research professor at Cambridge University and his work focuses on Russian history. He was previously Head of the International History Department at LSE.

Margot Light is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at The London School of Economics and Political Science and Director of the Human Rights Programme in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Ian Morris held the Philippe Roman Chair during the 2015-16 academic year. He is the Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor in Classics and Professor in History in the Department of Classics at Stanford University.

Danny Quah was a Professor in the Department of Economics at LSE and in his later years at the School, he was also Director of LSE's Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. He is currently Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics and Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the University of Singapore.

Svetozar Rajak is an Associate Professor at the LSE Department of International History. He was a Founding Academic Director of LSE IDEAS, Head of the Southern Europe International Affairs Programme and Head of the Balkan Initiative. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Cold War History.

Timothy Snyder held the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2013-14 academic year. Professor Snyder is currently Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and specialises in the political history of central and eastern Europe as well as the Holocaust.

Arne Westad was a Founding Director of LSE IDEAS. He is the Engelsberg Chair for the 2020/21 academic year. Professor Westad lectures widely on China's foreign affairs, on Western interventions in Africa and Asia, and on foreign policy strategy.

Dr David Patrick Houghton is Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. His research interests comprise foreign policy analysis, decision making and political psychology. He gained his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh before becoming a lecturer in international relations at the University of Essex. He laterly became Senior Lecturer in Defence Studies at Kings College London before moving to his current position. He has published a number of books and articles including in Foreign Policy Analysis and the Journal of Cold War Studies.

Gordon Barrass, CMG is a Visiting Professor at LSE IDEAS, where he specialises on strategy, assessments and perceptions. After more than 20 years in the British Diplomatic Service he served as Chief of the Assessments Staff in the Cabinet Office. He then spent nearly a decade helping PwC expand its business in China’s rapidly growing financial services sector.

Paul Cornish has held senior/professorial appointments in UK research institutes and universities: Chatham House; the UK Defence Academy; the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College London; the RAND Corporation (Europe); and the Universities of Cambridge, Bath and Exeter. His work covers international security, national strategy, cyber security, arms control, the ethics of armed force, and civil-military relations. He has published widely on national strategy, international security, cyber security and cyber governance. His most recent book is 2020: World of War and he is editor of the Oxford Handbook of Cyber Security.

Enrique Garcia is a Visiting of Professor in Practice at LSE IDEAS. He is the Chairman of the Advisory Board at the LSE Global South Unit. Enrique was President and CEO of CAF – Development Bank of Latin America for 26 years, and held managerial positions at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In  Bolivia, he was the Minister of Planning and Coordination and member of the Board of the Central Bank. He is Chairman of the Council of International Relations for Latin America (RIAL) and the Trust for the Americas as well as member of several Boards internationally. He is a ranking member of the Bolivian Academy of Economic Sciences, has been professor at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres and Católica in Bolivia, Visiting Fellow in the Latin American Centre at Oxford University, Visiting Professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) and Beijing Normal University. He is the author of publications on development issues and multilateralism in international journals and books.

Dr John Hughes, CBE is Professor in Practice at LSE IDEAS. John was a British career diplomat for 35 years serving mainly in the Americas, together with secondments to the Cabinet Office, BAE Systems, and Shell. His final postings were as Ambassador to Venezuela and then to Argentina and Paraguay. In retirement he has been Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, Chair of Canning House, a Robin Humphreys Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, London University, and a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE. He is a member of the LSE IDEAS Advisory Board and is Chair of the British Argentine Chamber of Commerce.

Lutfey Siddiqi is an Adjunct Professor at National University of Singapore and a Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE IDEAS. Previously Global Head of Emerging Markets for Foreign Exchange, Rates & Credit at UBS Investment bank and Managing Director at Barclays bank. World Economic Forum: Young Global Leader (2012), Global Futures Council (2014-2018). Advisory boards: LSE Systemic Risk Centre, Centre for Governance (Singapore); CFA Future of Finance, Bretton Woods Committee.

Professor Linda Yueh CBE was Visiting Professor at LSE IDEAS and Chair of the LSE Economic Diplomacy Commission. She also serves on the Advisory Board of LSE IDEAS and on the Policy Committee of the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE. She is Fellow in Economics, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and Adjunct Professor of Economics, London Business School. She was an Adviser to the UK Board of Trade and a member of the Independent Review Panel on Ring-fencing and Proprietary Trading of the UK Government. Professor Yueh is the Editor of the Routledge Series on Economic Growth and Development and the author of numerous books, including China’s Growth: The Making of an Economic Superpower and The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today.

Sir Laurie Bristow, appointed President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge in 2022, was a British diplomat for 32 years.  He was Ambassador to Afghanistan during the fall of the Republic to the Taliban in 2021,  the UK’s Ambassador to Russia from 2016 to 2020, and Deputy Ambassador to Russia from 2007 to 2010.  He was Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2004 to 2007.  Sir Laurie regularly writes and comments on Russia and national and international security issues. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, and a Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network.

Sir Paul Tucker is Visiting Professor in Practice. He is a research fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, and author of Global Discord (Princeton University Press, 2022) and Unelected Power (PUP, 2018). His other activities include being a senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University; president of the UK’s National Institute for Economic and Social Research; research fellow at UCL’s political science department; a director at Swiss Re; and a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation. He was a central banker for over thirty years at the Bank of England and Basel, where he was a member of the steering committee of the G20 Financial Stability Board, leading its work on resolving too-big-to-fail firms without taxpayer bailouts, chaired the Committee for Payment and Settlement Systems, and was a member of the board of the Bank for International Settlements. He chaired the Systemic Risk Council from 2016 to mid-2021.

Peter Jones CMG served in the British Diplomatic Service for over thirty years, retiring from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 2021. Peter was Chief Operating Officer and Director-General from 2017 to 2020, and prior to that Director for Defence and International Security from 2014 to 2017. Peter served in four UK diplomatic missions overseas: the UK Delegation to the Conventional Arms Control Negotiations in Vienna, British Embassies Bonn and Rome, and British High Commission Accra, where he was British High Commissioner to Ghana and non-resident British Ambassador to Togo and Burkina Faso from 2011 to 2014.

Peter was appointed Visiting Senior Fellow and Head of Global Strategies at LSE IDEAS in 2023. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), where he chairs RUSI’s European Security Advisory Group. He is a Trustee and Board member of MAG International, a UK-based global landmine clearance and armed violence reduction charity, and Chair of the British Italian Society.

Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid is a Honorary and Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE. His work is focused on Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) regional politics and economy. As chairman of CARI Asean Research and Advocacy and of Asean Business Advisory Council Malaysia (from 2014 to 2023), he has been at the forefront of thought and practical business leadership for more effective regional integration. He was the founding chairman of the Malaysian Securities Commission and, over the past 50 years, has served in both the public and private sectors, and worked in academia, as a journalist, in banking, as regulator and corporate leader.

Gideon Rachman is the chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times, where he authors a weekly column on foreign affairs and feature articles. Before joining the Financial Times in 2006, he was a senior editor and correspondent for The Economist and BBC World Service presenter. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Washington, Brussels, and Bangkok, and is the author of Zero-Sum World and Easternization  which was launched at the LSE in 2017. 

Hugh Sandeman was an international banker for 30 years based in New York, Tokyo, London, and Frankfurt, and for the past decade has focused on India. He was previously Tokyo correspondent, international business editor and New York correspondent of The Economist.

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri is Head of the US and the Americas Programme at Chatham House, and Dean of the Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, Chatham House. She was Director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice and a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in International Relations at SOAS, University of London. Leslie was also Chair of the International Relations Speaker Series at SOAS. Her research areas include transatlantic relations, US foreign policy, the politics of international intervention, human rights and justice, and UN Security Council Diplomacy.

Peter Watkins is a Visiting Professor, King's College London; an Associate Fellow, Chatham House; and a Non-Resident Fellow with the Atlantic Council. He was formerly the Director General Strategy & International (2017-18) and Director General Security Policy (2014-17) in the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). In these roles, he was responsible for strategic policy & planning; the Defence dimension of the UK's cross-government response to Russia; defence relations with NATO, the EU and with key bilateral allies; and defence policy aspects of cyber, space and novel technologies.  Previous roles included Director General of the Defence Academy (2011-14) and Director of Operational Policy (2008-11).  Among earlier assignments, he was Private Secretary to the Defence Secretary (2001-03) and Counsellor (Defence & Aerospace), British Embassy Bonn/Berlin (1996-2000).  He was a Visiting Fellow, Harvard University (2006-07). 

Dr Luc-André Brunet is the Acting Director of the Cold War Studies Project, Co-Director of the Peace and Security Project, and a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS.

Sérgio Chichava is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Social and Economic Studies (IESE) in Mozambique, where he leads a research programme on rising powers and development. His current work focuses on the international dimensions of the crisis in Cabo Delgado. Chichava has lectured in political sociology and Mozambican politics at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo and has held fellowships at Oxford University and the LSE. He holds a PhD in political science from Bordeaux University, focusing on African politics.  

Dr Eirini Karamouzi is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary History at the University of Sheffield and Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS. She is the author of Greece, the EEC and the Cold War, 1974-1979. The Second Enlargement and co-editor of the volume Balkans in the Cold War. She is co-director of the Cultures of the Cold War network, Editor in Cold War History Journal and Book Review Editor in Journal of Contemporary history. She works on the history of European integration, Modern Greece and currently runs as PI a Max Batley peace studies funded project on peace movements in Southern Europe during the Euromissile crisis. She tweets @EiriniKaramouzi.

Nicholas Kitchen is Director of the multi-disciplinary Centre for the study of Global Power Competition (CGPC) and Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Surrey. He teaches on IDEAS’ Executive MSc International Strategy and Diplomacy. Nick was previously Executive Director of the LSE Diplomacy Commission. His research interests lie in the relationship between power, ideas, and strategy in international relations, with a particular focus on the role of great powers. 

Effie G. H. Pedaliu is a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS and has held posts at LSE, KCL and UWE. She is the author of Britain, Italy and the Origins of the Cold War and co-editor of Britain in Global Affairs, Volume II, From Churchill to Blair. The main themes of her work include American and British Cold War policy and strategy, European and Mediterranean security politics, and Human Rights in Southern Europe.

Dr Saqib Qureshi has written for The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, The Independent and 1828; and authored Reconstructing Strategy: Dancing with the God of Objectivity and the Amazon bestseller from 2020 The Broken Contract. He completed his academic studies at LSE with his undergraduate degree and PhD in International Relations. Saqib was also the Associate Producer for the feature length film ‘Rahm’ in 2016 and has worked at McKinsey & Co and HSBC Investment Bank, and for governments in Dubai, London and Washington DC. He is the founder and CEO of Building Capital Inc, one of Canada’s leading developers of student housing.

Dr Buğra Süsler is Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS. He is a Lecturer in International Organisations and International Conflict and Cooperation at University College London Political Science Department and Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS. His research focuses on Turkish foreign policy, emerging powers, and international conflict and cooperation. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE. He is the author of Turkey, the EU, and the Middle East: Foreign Policy Cooperation and the Arab Uprisings (Routledge, 2020).

Jon-Wyatt "Jack" Matlack is a phD candidate at the University of Regensburg. Previously he was a visiting fellow at LSE Ideas, the Center for Military History of the German Armed Forces, and Leibniz ScienceCampus Regensburg. Jack studies the intersection of strategic communication, military training, and operational doctrine on the one hand, and nationalism and identity on the other. Co-editor of Sovereignty through Practice(Routledge). He also works in strategy consulting. 

Dr. Saadia Zahoor is an international law expert. She has worked as a policy expert at the Strategic Policy Planning Cell and assisted the Office of the National Security Adviser on matters related to international law and non-traditional security. Earlier, she worked at the ICRC as a Legal Consultant, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan as an Assistant Legal Adviser and as an Assistant Professor at Bahria University, Islamabad. She has also taught at the International Islamic University, Islamabad. She received her LLB (Hons), LLM (International Law), and PhD (Law) from International Islamic University. She has attended the Centre for Studies and Research in International Law and International Relations at The Hague Academy of International Law, Netherland. She holds a diploma in Investor State Arbitration from the College of Law, American University, Washington. She also attended the Singapore International Arbitration Academy 2022 and earned her Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster Certification from Harvard University.

Dr Seema Khan previously spent more than 20 years working across public administration, management, and implementation within the Pakistani government and Australian universities. She will undertake research into Pakistan’s approach towards the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Dr Moonis Ahmar is former Dean Faculty of Social Sciences and Meritorious Professor at the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi. He was also Chairman of the Department of International Relations at the University of Karachi and is Director of the Programme on Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.

His field of specialization is conflict and security studies, focusing on the South and the Central Asian regions. Dr Ahmar has 36 years of academic experience in Pakistan and in different foreign universities and research think tanks. He is the author of three books, four monographs and has edited 15 books on different themes in international relations.

Dr Neli Kirilova is a Bulgarian scholar with experience in international relations, focused on EU diplomacy. The aim of her research at LSE IDEAS is to examine the relation between external power competition and political (in)stability in a case study country. 

Dr Kirilova holds a PhD in International Relations and Security Studies (CUB, Hungary) in collaboration with the Doctoral School on CSDP/CFSP at the European Security and Defence College (ESDC), Brussels, Belgium. In her dissertation, Power Perception and Conflict Prevention in the Black Sea region: the EU, Russia and Turkey (2024), Dr Kirilova examines the incompatible concept of power as a reason for international security crises. She has developed a new theory on conflict prevention, suggesting the qualitative assessment framework Six Elements of Power. Her research methods include: analysis of foreign and security policy strategies, comparative content and discourse analyses, and elite expert interviews. Recent publications.  

Previously, Dr Kirilova implemented visiting research at BSIS–Kent (UK/EU), LSUNN (Russia), ADA (Azerbaijan), ISU (Georgia), and exchange at AUB (Spain). MA degrees: Erasmus Mundus International Masters in Russian, Central and East European Studies (UoG, UK), MA in Political Science (CUB, Hungary), MA/BA in International Relations (UNWE, Bulgaria). MA theses: The role of Russia within BSEC. Implications to regional diplomacy (2015) and Energy diplomacy in the EU-Russia relations and the role of Bulgaria (2013).

Dr Ivan Lidarev is a foreign policy analyst and expert on Asian security and the international relations of China and India. In 2021 he obtained his PhD in International Relations and Political Science from King’s College London with a dissertation on the China-India territorial dispute. Ivan served as advisor at Bulgaria’s National Assembly (2014-2017), Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom (2018-2019), and Associate Features Editor of E-International Relations (2015-2016). He has participated in various leadership and training programmes, including as Young Leader (2016, 2017) at the GLOBSEC Forum, MERICS Young European China Talent (2018) at Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), and New Security Leader (2021) at the Warsaw Security Forum.

Ivan received his MA in International Affairs, with a concentration in Asia, from Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA), George Washington University, and BA in History, Asian Studies, and Global and International Studies from Bard College. He also studied at Shanghai’s Fudan University.

He boasts rich thinktank experience, having served as Visiting Fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague (IIR) in 2022 and at New Delhi’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in 2017, among other institutions.

Dr Aleksandra Peeva is a research fellow at the Humboldt University of Berlin and a consultant with the World Bank.  

Ms. Peeva previously earned a PhD in economics from the German Institute for Economic Research and Humboldt University, learnt to teach students as a lecturer at the Free University Berlin, examined the fiscal aspects of economic stimulus measures at home and abroad while interning with the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the German Agency for International Cooperation and convinced herself of the need for society’s support of culture as an intern with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. She also profited from the diversity of opinions and backgrounds at the Berlin Social Science Center and the International Monetary Fund while on visiting research fellowships there. 

Dr Leon Hartwell is the 2022 Mladena and Dianko Sotirov Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Democratic Resilience and Transatlantic Leadership programs at the Center of European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington D.C.  His research interests include conflict resolution, genocide, transitional justice, diplomacy, democracy, and the Western Balkans. Hartwell will undertake research into domestic and foreign policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the potential policy options available to the US, UK and EU in bringing about an end to the country’s ‘post-war paralysis’. He is on Twitter @LeonHartwell.

Vuk Vuksanović is a political scientist from Serbia who specialises in international affairs, with Master degrees from the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Belgrade and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Vuksanović brings a wealth of experience and expertise to LSE IDEAS from academia, the private sector and government. He worked for two years at the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Sector for Security Policy, Belgrade, and as an analyst and consultant for several policy think tanks providing political and geopolitical risk assessments pertaining to the regional markets of the Balkans, the Middle East and the post-Soviet space.

Vuk is currently completing his PhD research at LSE in international relations. His PhD deals with the Serbian balancing act between Russia and the West between 2008 and 2020, and he will use this Fellowship to focus on the growing Sino-Serbian partnership.

Bogdan Zawadewicz is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany. In his doctoral work he investigates the role of symbolic political cleavages in shaping separatists' strategies in Bosnia & Hercegovina and Ukraine. He has worked as a research associate at Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg, Germany where he was a member of the research group "Frozen and Unfrozen Conflicts". He holds a Master's Degree in Political Science (University of Warsaw, Institute of Political Science). His research interests include the Balkans, Post-Soviet Space, separatism, conflict studies, field theory (Pierre Bourdieu), world-systems analysis. 

Asya Metodieva is a PhD Candidate at Central European University (CEU), Budapest. Her research is on foreign fighter mobilization in post-violent societies with a focus on the Western Balkans. Her dissertation investigates the construction of martial social identity within different fighter mobilization streams from the region contributing to two ongoing conflicts: Syria and Eastern Ukraine. Asya has been a teaching assistant for the Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism and Public Management classes at School of Public Policy, CEU. She holds MA in International Public Policy from CEU and MA in International Relations and Security Studies from Sofia University 'St. Kliment Ohridski'. Previously, Asya worked as a journalist for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

Roumiana Preshlenova is Associate Professor at the Institute of Balkan Studies and Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. She is also lecturer in Southeast European Studies, Faculty of History of Sofia University 'St. Kliment Ohridski'.

Mariah Thornton is a MPhil/PhD student at the Department of International Relations and a researcher at LSE IDEAS. She is the Stonex Scholar. Her research focuses on China’s foreign policy and strategy toward Taiwan, cross-Strait relations, as well as Taiwan in digital IR.

Dr Marcin Fatalski graduated from the Faculty of History at the Jagiellonian University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Jagiellonian University and works there at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora. His research focuses on the modern history of international relations, US foreign policy, and nation-building/state-building policy. He has lectured at, among others, Radboud University Nijmegen, the University of Barcelona, Roma Tre University, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Budapest, and the University of Veliko Tarnovo. He has conducted research in the Central Archives of Modern Records (Archiwum Akt Nowych), the Polish Institute of International Relations, and the Library of the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin.